


Sins of the Father

by iamtheview



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Original Trilogy, Star Wars Prequel Trilogy, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: F/M, Mortis (Star Wars), Time Travel, earth swear words because ‘kriff’ causes me physical pain, i literally just rewrote the mortis arc with luke added in, it does change up a bit later on though, wow tagging is really hard
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-11
Updated: 2020-08-28
Packaged: 2021-03-05 00:48:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 26,944
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25205728
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/iamtheview/pseuds/iamtheview
Summary: Luke is just trying to return to base when he picks up a disturbance on his scanners. The next thing he knows, his X-Wing is parked next to an old Clone Wars shuttle, and he has to work with its three Jedi inhabitants (including his not-evil Father) to try and find a away off Mortis without destroying the balance of the universe. You know, like a normal Tuesday.
Relationships: Anakin Skywalker & Ahsoka Tano, Anakin Skywalker | Darth Vader & Luke Skywalker, Luke Skywalker & Ahsoka Tano, Obi-Wan Kenobi & Anakin Skywalker, Padmé Amidala/Anakin Skywalker (mentioned)
Comments: 135
Kudos: 440





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> All copyright goes to Disney/Lucasfilm, I own nothing... obviously... :/

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Luke crashes on Mortis and mets a strange trio of Jedi

Luke frowned at the dial on his X Wing as it spun in violent circles. He slapped it a couple of times, trying to get it to calm down, but it was to no avail. Everything was offline and useless, even the navigation systems and the engines were just hanging on the precipice of gIving up entirely.

“Artoo, can you get a lock on any of this?” he asked.

Artoo beeped a reply: there was nothing either of them could do but radio for help. Luke flicked a few switches but the cockpit was just filled with static. Nothing. 

Suddenly, the ship lurched. He swore and tried to wrestle the controls as the X Wing got caught in the gravity field of some strange triangular object he could’ve sworn wasn’t there before. Of course, that was the exact moment the engines completely cut out and the entire ship went dead. Not even the life support systems remained online, and Luke could do nothing as his fighter just accelerated faster and faster towards the suspicious prism.

“Hold on Artoo!” he yelled.

A bright light erupted from the middle of the pyramid, tendrils reaching out towards his ship and he shrieked, desperately trying to get some sort of system back online. Artoo let out a sad boop and deactivated and Luke was forced to throw his hands up over his eyes as the light got too bright to handle.

When it finally dissipated, Luke groggily opened his eyes to find himself slumped forwards in his seat, supported by his pilot brace. He groaned and blinked a few times before he looked up.

Through the visor of his helmet, his surroundings were painted with an orange tint, but that was the least of his worries. Not two seconds ago, he’d been in deep space, losing control of his crashing fighter, but now, he seemed to be in some sort of meadow or jungle. It was lush and green and dotted with sunlight.

The readings on the X Wings computer didn’t help at all. While they worked, they were almost completely useless. The atmosphere was breathable to humanoid species, and the land was an organic mass, bigger than an asteroid. That was all he had to go on; the computer couldn’t even figure out where in the galaxy he was... or if he was even in his own galaxy.

“Are you seeing this Artoo?” he whispered. 

There was no reply. Instead, his attention was caught by another ship next to him; an old Clone Wars era shuttle, if he remembered his ships correctly. The gangway was coming down.

Luke grabbed his lightsaber, unstrapped himself from his seat and popped open the cockpit. He didn’t wait for the ladder to swing out from under the ship; he just pushed himself over the edge and used the force to absorb the impact of his landing, just like Yoda had taught him. Hopefully whoever disembarked that shuttle could give him some answers.

He pulled his helmet off his head as the first person stepped into the floor. She was a young torgruta female in burgundy clothes, but the most remarkable thing were the two lightsabers she carried openly on her waist. Luke’s hand twitched towards his own, concealed in his jumpsuit. Who would be suicidal enough to display a lightsaber like that?

She didn’t notice him straight away, and the other two occupants of the shuttle followed down after her: two men both dressed in old Jedi robes. One cream and brown, one black and dark red. A clone wars shuttle, and three obvious Jedi, either these people were very stupid or very out of touch.

Or very out of time...

“Hey, I saw something!” the girl said, pointing over in the distance. “A reflection up on the hill!”

The jedi with the beard and the cream robes raised a small pair of binoculars to his eyes and started to scan the horizon.

“I don’t see anything,” he remarked in a strange Coruscanti accent.

“Hi,” Luke decided to make himself known.

The three Jedi spun around to face him, hands on their sabers. Luke put his helmet down and raised his hands in the air to demonstrate that he wasn’t a threat.

“Do you have any idea where we are?” he asked, testing the waters.

“No,” said the Jedi in the black robes. “We crashed here... I think,”

Something in the force danced around him. He was mainly unshielded and evidently extremely powerful, and something about him just called to Luke, like they were connected. Maybe it was just the faint Tatooine accent.

“The same thing happened to me,” Luke said. “I was just on my way to my friends when my droid-“

He gasped as he realised how uncharacteristically silent Artoo had been since they arrived, and spun round to his ship. Artoo was still sitting in his capsule, completely deactivated and Luke ran over, hauling himself up into the cockpit. With the press of a button, Artoo ejected, but rather than making his own way gently down, he just landed on the floor with a hollow thunk. Luke jumped back out of the cockpit and crouched next to the astromech.

“Artoo, are you alright?” he asked, running a hand over his blue dome.

“Is that R2D2?!”

There was a strange hostility in the Jedi’s voice as Luke turned around to see the three of them standing behind him. The bearded one was shooting a warning glance at the hostile one.

“Yeah, he’s my droid,” Luke said slowly. “I’ve had him for years, why?”

“He’s Anakin’s droid!” the girl said. “Where did you get him?”

“From some Jawas,” Luke replied, standing up. He slowly reached for the saber hidden in his jumpsuit.

“I think we all need to calm down,” said the Coruscanti Jedi said. “And perhaps we should introduce ourselves before we go to war over a droid. I am Jedi Master Obi Wan Kenobi,”

Luke’s eyes widened. Ben?

“Ahsoka Tano,” the girl added with a nod.

“Anakin Skywalker,” the third Jedi said, still glaring at Luke.

Luke gasped up at the man in front of him, honestly feeling like his heart had stopped. He stared up into his father’s face with a strange kind of emotion welling in his chest: this was the man who would become Vader. He’d dreamt about his father for so long, then all his dreams had been shattered on Bespin but now here he was, large as life, glaring own at him without the black skull mask.

“Luke,” he said. “Luke... Solo. I think I know why I have your droid,”

Anakin’s eyes were bright blue, the same as Luke’s own. He raised an eyebrow and Luke couldn’t help but suppress a laugh as realisation hit him. Artoo had been his father’s!

“You’re all from the past,” he said. “I’m out of my time,”

“What?” Ahsoka asked, as if she hadn’t quite heard him. “That’s impossible,”

Luke shrugged, looking her up and down. Ben had never mentioned an Ahsoka, and he’d never heard any records of her. She’d probably die in the purges.

“Take a look at my ship if you don’t believe me, I’m sure you won’t recognise the technology. And my hand,”

“Your hand?”

Luke pulled off his black glove to reveal his prosthetic hand. A small bit of the synthskin had started to tear away at the pinky, revealing the gears and wires within. Anakin whistled, and then pulled off his own glove. His father had the same prosthetic; but far older, and clearly mechanical. Luke laughed again, feeling weirdly giddy. 

“Well,” Obi Wan said. “I’m glad we’ve cleared that all up. We should find out what’s going on over here, and seeking shelter certainly couldn’t harm us,”

“Not until I fix Artoo,” Luke protested with a frown, crouching back down with his astromech.

“You want to risk us all for your droid?” Obi Wan’s voice seemed half exhasperated, half amused.

“Yes,” Luke said stubbornly.

Obi Wan shot Anakin a look, who just shrugged. He opened his mouth like he was about to say something before he froze and spun around, hand on his weapon. 

“Did you hear that?” he said.

“I didn’t hear anything,” Obi Wan replied.

Hairs raised on the back of Luke’s neck and he turned to where Anakin was staring. A 7 foot tall woman was standing there with flowing green hair in a regal ensemble. Her face looked pretty, but strangely morose and she seemed to glow with some kind of internal light.

The force, Luke realised. The woman was glowing with her force presence; it was almost blinding.

“Hello,” said Obi Wan, also seeing her. 

“Who are you?” Anakin demanded, hands on his hips.

“I am Daughter,” the woman said. Her voice echoed around them. “Are you the One?”

“Uh, the One what?” Anakin asked, his tone of voice suggesting he already knew, but would rather he didn’t.

“I will take you to him,” Daughter said resolutely.

“Him who?” asked Ahsoka.

“Did you bring us here?” Obi Wan added.

“Only he can help you,” The Daughter seemed to be having her own conversation. “There is little time, follow me. We must have shelter by nightfall,”

She turned and walked away. Luke raised his eyebrows.

“And I thought the planet was weird,” he said.

“Yeah,” Anakin added. “Get a load of this one,”

Luke grinned at his father before the four of them followed Daughter off up a mountain trail. They trekked in near silence for about 20 minutes, on a narrow path cut into the side of a steep cliff. Luke reached experimentally out into the force around him; he could feel his father’s blazing presence, and the other two jedi, but if he ignored them, the whole planet just felt... weird. There really was no other way to describe it, except... raw.

“Have you noticed the seasons seem to change with the time of day?” Obi Wan said quietly.

Luke blinked. He hadn’t actually noticed that; he should probably spend less time focusing on how untamed the force felt, and more time on the physical things in front of him. There was probably some fable for that.

“And there are no animals,” Ahsoka said.

He also hadn’t noticed that. Some rebellion commander he was. In all fairness, there were seldom any animals anywhere he’d ever been; Tatooine had its fair share of womp rats, but they never strayed in the open desert for too long. He’d spent too much of his time on Yavin in the cockpit of an X Wing to notice many native fauna, and... let’s just say wildlife on Hoth had been an immersive experience. He didn’t even want to think about Dagobah.

“An intersection unlike anything I’ve ever felt before,” Obi Wan said, and Luke realised with a guilty jump that he hadn’t actually been paying attention to what he’d been saying. “Be wary,”

“Excuse me,” Anakin said to Daughter, apparently fed up with the mystery of the place. “Who are you taking us to?”

“The Father, of course,” Daughter replied.

“Of course,” Ahsoka repeated sarcastically.

Luke grinned; he knew he was going to like her.

“And what exactly are you?” Obi Wan asked.

“We are the ones who guard the power” Daughter answered in the same strange way. “We are the beginning, the middle, and the end,”

“Glad she cleared that up for us,” Luke said, shooting his companions a mischievous glance, trying to join in on the fun.

Ahsoka and Anakin both smirked but Obi Wan just looked horrified. Luke could practically hear his thoughts through the force: Oh no, now there’s three of them.

With a sudden chill, the mood dampened. Luke shivered and glanced around. All around them, the leaves shrivelled into an autumnal red and orange and he realised Obi Wan was right; the seasons really were changing.

“Look out!” Anakin yelled, and Luke glanced upwards to see a huge boulder halfway down a cliff towards him.

He didn’t even have time to shriek before Anakin collided with him, shoving him and the Daughter out of the way, and Luke could do nothing but laugh nervously as a giant slab of rock collapsed onto the ground, not less than a millimetre from where we was lying. Anakin had landed on Daughter and she threw him off.

“It is forbidden for you to touch me,” she ordered, a small hint of angry resentment creeping into her voice.

“Sorry,” Anakin didn’t sound sorry, “I was just saving your life,”

“That was my brother’s work,” Once again, Daughter didn’t seem to hear a thing he’d said and Anakin and Luke exchanged a glance. “You are in great danger. Wait for me. Do not leave this place.”

She turned her back on them and continued on up the trail. 

“Anakin, are you there? Are you alright?” Anakin’s commlink sparked to life with Obi Wan’s voice. “Is Luke with you?”

“Yeah,” Anakin sighed. “But our friend here has RUN OFF,”

He yelled the last two words at Daughter’s retreating figure and Luke grinned.

“Go back to the ship and try sending another distress call,” he continued. “We’ll follow her and find out how to get off this rock,”

“And make sure Artoo’s still okay,” Luke added, leaning in to the wrist comm. Anakin nodded his approval.

“And if this is a trap?” Obi Wan cautioned

“Let’s not wait around to find out,” Luke said.

“The two of you, stop, wait for us to find another way around and meet you,” Obi Wan’s digital voice said disapprovingly.

“Whoops,” Anakin mouthed, turning off the comm.

“So...” Luke said, looking up at his father with a smirk.

“I don’t know about you,” Anakin grinned, with the exact same expression. “But I’ve never been much good at staying put,”

“You read my mind,” Luke said. “Let’s break the strange Goddess lady’s only rule and get out of here,”


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Obi Wan and Ahsoka meet the Son and have some strange visions

On the other side of the huge rock, Obi Wan sighed as the commlink dissolved into static.

“So reckless and impatient,” he complained. “And Luke doesn’t seem to be much in the way of a good influence, now there’s two of them,”

“They’ll find her,” Ahsoka reassured him.

“Yes... and what else?”

As if to mark that ominous statement, thunder crackled violently to life overhead and the two Jedi looked up at the black clouds creeping across the sky.

“Storm’s coming,” Ahsoka noted, like it wasn’t obvious enough.

They needed to get out of there.

By the time they’d made their way back to the grove where their ship had been, the clouds had covered the skies and it was almost as dark as night. The grove was completely empty too, there was no sign of their ship, or Luke’s strange allegedly futuristic fighter. Artoo was gone too, and there were no drag marks of any sort, or singed grass from where an engine had been ignited.

“The ships are gone!” Ahsoka said.

“Yes, I see that,” he replied dryly.

“It was here, no question!” she protested, like she thought it was somehow her fault they’d vanished. “And look,” she said, drawing his attention to the blackening husk of a flower at their feet. “Everything’s dying,”

“Did you lose something?” a man’s voice echoed behind them, in a similar way to how Daughter’s had.

Obi Wan frowned, and Ahsoka’s lightsaber jumped into her hand, lit as they looked at the man behind them. He was as tall as daughter, pale, bald and dressed in sweeping black robes. His eyes burned red, and while Daughter had exuded light and brightness to the extent where it was almost painful, he seemed to suck in everything around them, leaving it cold and desolate and empty.

“You didn’t do as you were asked,” he said. His voice was low and emotionless, but it sent a shiver up Obi Wan’s spine.

“And what was that?” he said, taking a protective step closer to Ahsoka.

“My sister said to wait,” 

“Did she now?” Obi Wan replied, falling back on his usual defence of sass. “Well, we were unfortunately separated. We’d like our ship back, if you don’t mind,”

“NOT...” the dark being in front of them growled angrily, before reigning his temper in. “...yet.”. He leaned in closer to Obi Wan, until his burning red eyes seemed to be sucking the very souls out of him. “Is it true that he is the Chosen One?”

Obi Wan’s eyes narrowed and he jumped back, igniting his own lightsaber. So these people wanted Anakin, and for whatever reason, that couldn’t be good.

“What do you know of such things?” he demanded.

“What is about to happen, shall occur whether you like it or not,” the man warned.

With a wave of his hand, their lightsabers were extinguished, plunging the three of them back into darkness.

“You’re a sith!” Obi Wan realised, jabbing a finger forwards him. His blood ran cold.

“Sith?” chuckled the man. “Yes... and no.”

He seemed to have Daughter’s same penance for vague mysterious answers.

“The storms here are quite lethal...”

He also had the same problem of answering questions nobody had spoken, it seemed, leading him back on a conversation on his own.

“If you want to live, I suggest you find shelter.” 

For a sith, it didn’t sound like a threat, more like friendly advice, but Obi Wan knew better than to take things at face value. The man grinned and leapt into the air, transforming into some dark winged creature before flying away to a crack of lightning. He shuddered.

“What in the universe was that?” Ahsoka asked.

“I’m not quite sure,” he replied looking down at his lightsaber. That casual display of power, turning the saber off, had unsettled him slightly. “But we’d better take shelter, just like he said.”

“Quick!” Ahsoka yelped, as lightning struck the ground next to her feet.

“There’s a cave over there!” Obi Wan pointed to a jagged hole carved in the rock and the two of them ran for it as lightning struck hot on their heels. 

Once they had a fire built, both of them had found that they were surprisingly sleepy, even despite the thunder crashing around them, and the electric swirling of the force. Obi Wan stood guard against a tower of luminescent crystal, while Ahsoka curled up against a ledge of rock, fast asleep.

He watched her shoulders rise and fall slowly for a few seconds, just thinking. This place certainly was extraordinary, and it’s inhabitants were no exception. From what he’d seen so far, he had to assume that Daughter and the strange sith man (probably Son) were like gods of the force; one representing the dark side and one representing the light. The Father Daughter had tried to take them too must have been some kind of mediator: a point of balance.

And then there was Luke. He’d said his last name was Solo, or Sorrow, or something like that, but he’d obviously been lying. He was incredibly strong in the force, maybe even on par with Anakin, but his training was lacking. Even so, that fighter jet and the helmet he’d discarded proved that he was a soldier in some kind of war. It couldn’t possibly still be the Clone War, could it? What exactly would the future hold? Obi Wan didn’t know if they could trust Luke. He seemed open and bright, but he was certainly hiding something big, and in his book, people who hid such huge things usually did it for sone huge reason. 

“Luke,” a woman’s voice said, and Obi Wan jumped around, saber ready.

The woman didn’t seem to hear him. For a brief second, he thought she was a ghostly figure of Senator Amidala, staring off at someone he couldn’t see.

“What did I do, Leia?” Luke’s haunted voice whispered, and a vision of him appeared next to her, glowing blue. Even blue, he looked pale and troubled, and there were deep bags under his eyes. “They’re saying there were over a million people on board,”

“You did what you had to do,” the woman, Leia, said softly, pulling him in close. “It was them or us,”

“But how can I justify killing a million people?” Luke whispered back. “Even if it was to prevent another Alderaan,”

Leia pulled away and stared up at him, and Obi Wan was struck with a flicker of a memory of Anakin and Padmé ‘professionally’ greeting one another.

His heart ached for Luke; that haunted look burning into his soul. War was hard, if one could even call it that. He was no stranger to death and bloodshed he knew what it was like to bitterly regret difficult choices between killing a hundred people or killing a thousand.

His sympathy was clouded with a shadow of doubt: a million people seemed wildly excessive, even for war. With such huge stakes, surely any moral soldier would find another way, with less death, to prevent an ‘Alderaan Situation’. How many battle cruisers would you have to blow up to kill over a million people? Something about the situation didn’t exactly sit right with him; he’d have to warn Anakin to be cautious, and ask Luke about it as soon as he could.

With a whoosh of blue, the scene changed yet again to Luke sat on his own in a dirt hut. His legs were crossed, and his eyes were closed, and Obi Wan recognised small pieces of a lightsaber arranged in front of him. As Luke concentrated, they floated up into shape of a saber, joining together perfectly with the force. 

Eyes still closed, he reached out his hand and it floated towards him, landing on his grip and he laughed giddily, similar to how must younglings would the first time they constructed their blades. The boy was far too old to have only just reached the level of training necessary to build a lightsaber; if anything though, Obi Wan wouldn’t have assumed he was ready at all. His mental shields and control were strong but severely lacking, for a self proclaimed Jedi, it was like he was completely unused to having other force-sensitives around him.

The scene changed yet again to Luke standing on a thin beam over a huge drop into oblivion. He looked terrified, and Obi Wan’s hand twitched, like he somehow thought he could save him. One arm was pressed against his chest, and there was a startling lack of hand attached to that arm. Standing in front of him, just off the gantry, was a tall imposing figure with a black mask hiding his face and a red lightsaber in his hand. A Sith. His breath rasped through the respirator on his mask, and when he spoke, his voice came out deep and mechanical.

“Luke,” the Sith said, and Obi Wan shivered involuntarily. “You do not yet realise your importance; you have only begun to discover your power,”

The Sith’s cape fluttered in the updraft and Luke edged backwards along the beam. 

“I will complete your training,” the Sith continued. “With our combined strength, we can end this destructive conflict and bring order to the galaxy,”

Luke had reached the galley, and he pulled himself up, shaking.

“I’ll never join you,” he spat at the Sith, voice full of anger.

“If you only knew the power of the dark side,” the Sith raised a hand. “Obi Wan never told you what happened to your father,”

Obi Wan jumped at the mention of his name: he was included in this? What hadn’t he told Luke, who was his father? That must’ve been why Luke had given a fake name.

“He told me enough!” Luke yelled, and his voice shook with disgust and hatred. “He told me you killed him!”

“No,” Vader said. “I am your father,”

Luke’s eyes widened but before Obi Wan could see how he would react, the vision disappeared in a cloud of blue fog and smoke and he found himself waking up with a gasp.

Just who was Luke Solo?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> fun fact: while writing this (and several other wips) i wrote that Luke was hanging off a ‘galley’ which, as i was mortified to find out, is actually just a word for a kitchen...


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Luke and Anakin have a heart to heart and the poor kid FINALLY learns his mother’s name

Over in the monastery, on the other side of the planet, Luke was sleeping fitfully. Lightning crashed and rolled around his window as he tossed and turned on the thin mattress he’d been given, until he was jolted awake.

“Wake up, my son,” a deep voice said, and Luke jumped up, grabbing his lightsaber and getting himself entangled in the thin bedsheets.

Like a nightmare come to life, Vader stood in front of him, casting a tall shadow over the room that the green light of Luke’s lightsaber did little to disperse.

“How are you here?” Luke whispered. “You can’t be here,”

“Anything is possible, with the power of the dark side,” Vader didn’t even draw his own lightsaber, completely unthreatened by Luke’s battle stance.

“Why are you here?” Luke demanded. “What do you want?”

“I want you.” Vader replied. “I want you to realise your true potential, and to join me,”

“Didn’t I give you answer enough last time?” Luke laughed coldly. “Or do you want me to jump out the window now?”

“You doubt yourself,” The mechanical baritone held a strange amount of macabre amusement, and Luke’s blood ran cold. “You doubt that you made the right choice; you could’ve ended the Empire and the conflict with ease, had you stayed,”

“I can end it without you,” Luke growled. “I will never join the dark side,”

“But don’t you see, my son?” Vader said. “You’re already halfway there, and if you try to resist it, then it’ll be those closest to you that suffer,”

The sound of Han and Leia screaming echoed through his head and Luke’s eyes widened in horror.

“No,” he whispered. “NO!”

With a scream of rage, he charged at Vader, putting all his power into the blow, but rather than being blocked by a red saber, or feeling the thrum of the lightsaber cutting through metal and flesh, it went right through the figure of his father, cutting a rift in the stone of the wall beside him. Vader just stared him down as his ghostly imprint evaporated.

Breathing heavily, Luke dropped his saber on the floor. He could feel the dark side thrumming and singing around him and he shook his head , hiding his face in his hands like he could just made it all go away. Disembodied voices laughed and screaming spin the fog and haze around him, until he couldn’t stand it any longer; he lurched to his feet and out the door. He had find the Father and he had to get this to stop.

The Father was still sat in the same place he’d been when they’d entered, meditating at the door of a giant stained glass window. but this time, Luke’s father was there too. Not Vader, Anakin, but that seemed like a blurry line.

Anakin’s face was twisted in anger and he held his lightsaber inches away from the Father’s face. Luke ran over to stand beside him; he didn’t get too close though, that disturbing vision of Vader was still to close in his mind.

“To strike an unarmed man is hardly the Jedi way,” the Father was saying, his eyes still closed, despite the threat in front of him.

“You’re a Sith lord,” Anakin growled, the force rolling off him in far too much of an uncomfortably familiar way for someone declaring their hatred of sith.

“You have a very simple view of the universe,” the Father replied calmly. “I am neither Sith nor Jedi. I am much more... and so are you,”

Luke glanced between the two of them, trying to figure out exactly what was going on and trying to ignore the chill within him.

“I see through your spells and visions, old man,” Anakin said. “Tell me what is going on here!”

He jabbed his saber closer, and Luke reached out, as if he could somehow try and stop him from murdering the literal God of the force. The Father wasn’t impressed with Anakin’s threat. With his bare hand, he grabbed the lightsaber and it crackled and jumped. Luke took a step backwards as the Father rose to his full height, his palm burning in the light of the lightsaber.

“Some call us force wielders,” he said, and with a negligent brush, the blue blade that had erupted from Anakin’s saber vanished into darkness.

Hey, I recognise that hilt, Luke thought absentmindedly.

“The Jedi have never spoken of this,” his father said.

“Few know of our existence,” the Father replied.

“In that room,” Anakin pointed down the walkway, towards the long corridor where they’d been taken to sleep. “My mother came to me... but it was not her, it was something else!”

That piqued Luke’s interest. He’d heard about his grandmother Shmi before, the freed slave who had been killed by Tuskan raiders, but he’d never really thought about her in the context of Anakin, or of Darth Vader. The love and pain in Anakin’s voice made him pause.

“I saw my father too,” Luke said. “But he wasn’t really there, he was just an illusion,”

“My son, I suspect,” the Father hummed. “We have many abilities, and we can manipulate the reflections of the life force around us with ease,” He turned to Anakin. “You carry a great sadness in your heart,” he said, and then towards Luke. “And you, a great guilt,”

The two of them glanced at one another as the Father strode away and began monologuing.

“My children and I can manipulate the force like no other,” he announced. “Therefore it was necessary to withdraw from the temporal world, and live here, as anchorites,”

“Like a sanctuary?” Luke asked.

The reply was grim. “And a prison. You cannot imagine what pain it is to have such love for your children and realise that they could tear apart the very fabric of the universe,”

Luke watched Anakin through the corner of his eye. He seemed to sympathise with what the Father was saying, but Luke couldn’t help but wonder. Did Anakin have any idea what it was like to have love for his children? Did Vader?

“I don’t understand,” Anakin said.

“It is only here that I can control them,” said the Father. “A family in balance, the light and the dark,”

Thinking of his own messed up ‘light and dark’ family, Luke snorted involuntarily and when both eyes turned to look at him, he blushed and mumbled an apology to the floor.

“Why reveal yourselves to us?” Anakin asked, drawing the attention back away from Luke.

“There are some who would like to exploit out power,” the Father said. Like his children, he also wasn’t all too great at getting to the point. “The Sith are but one. When news reached me that the Chosen One had been found-“

Anakin scoffed.

“-I needed to see for myself,”

“The Chosen One is a myth,” Anakin said, and Luke frowned in confusion. What was the Chosen One?

“Is it?” asked the Father, amused. “I should very much like to know. Why don’t we find out together?”

His voice was the same one that traders would use to lure young children into the back of speeders, back on Tatooine, and Luke stepped forwards, reaching a hand out to Anakin, trying to warn him.

“Pass one test,” the Father said. “and I shall know the truth. Then, you and your friends may leave.”

“Don’t do it,” Luke whispered, but Anakin ignored him.

“Fine,” he said.

The Father grinned and vanished in a puff of grey smoke.Anakin stood and stared at the space he’d been for a few seconds before he sighed heavily and collapsed down to the floor, sitting with his head in his hands.

“Are you alright?” he asked, sitting down beside him and putting a hand on his shoulder.

“That bastard doesn’t get to manipulate my mother’s memory like that,” Anakin said lowly.

“What happened?”

Apparently my love for my wife is a prison,” Anakin scoffed and Luke straightened, wide eyed at the mention of a wife. “That’s the kind of bullshit the Jedi spew, my mother was kind and loving and she would never have said such a thing,”

There was a lot to unpack there, but Luke couldn’t ask about it all just yet.

“Your mother sounded like an amazing woman,” he said.

“She was!” Anakin looked up at him. “It was all my fault that she died. I was too late to save her and she died in my arms because I failed,” he spat the last bit out bitterly, glaring at the floor in front of them, like it had been responsible.

“Oh,” Luke said awkwardly. There were a terse silence. “You’re married?” he asked finally.

When he’d thought of his parentage following Bespin, he’d always been afraid that he’d been the product of some kind of mistake, a brief fling, or something violent and worse. Darth Vader didn’t seem to have the capacity to love. But now, seeing the quiet smile that crept onto Anakin’s face, Luke’s heart almost sung for joy.

“I am. She’s everything to me,”

Luke smiled, a warm kind of feeling blossoming in his chest.

“You know, I thought my father was dead for most of my life,” he said quietly after another few moments of silence. If they were sharing emotional trauma, who better to share it with than the man who would one day cause it. “But then I grew up, joined the Alliance and I found out that he was the figurehead of the war we were fighting against... And I can’t tell anyone about it... and he offered me the chance to join him, I refused but I can’t help thinking that I should’ve agreed... if I’d gone with him, we could’ve taken down the Empire ourselves, and there wouldn’t need to be all this fighting and war,”

“War is difficult,” Anakin said. “You never know if you’re making the right choices, and you can always just feel yourself tiptoeing along a cliff’s edge. And sometimes you have to choose between what’s right, and what will save people, and you’ll regret both.“

 _Is that what you did?_ Luke thought silently. _Did you have to choose between what’s right, and what will end that war and you made the wrong choice? Do you regret it?_

Oblivious to Luke’s internal questions, Anakin carried on. “But there’s no point in dwelling on the past, and the what ifs. Trust in yourself, and trust in the force. You refused to join him because that’s what your instincts told you to do, and you made the right decision,”

“You think?” Luke smiled softly.

“You shouldn’t have to compromise your morals, even for family,” Anakin nodded. “If you’ve dedicated yourself to something, you shouldn’t have to turn your back on it for someone else, no matter who they are,”

Feeling reassured, Luke leant back and smiled to himself. He hadn’t been able to tell anyone what had happened on Bespin, he could only imagine what would happen if news of his parentage got out in the rebellion, and he’d been forced to bottle up all his insecurities and guilt.

Bottling up emotions was never a good thing, especially for a Jedi, and on more than one occasion, Luke had felt them threatening to burst out of him in the form of the dark side and he’d been forced to shove them even deeper. No one had ever taught him how to healthily hold on to the light side.

The connection he felt with his father definitely helped. He could practically see interwoven threads of the force stretching between them, lazily binding the two together and it filled him with an odd kind of warmth, the same as how he felt around Leia, weirdly enough.

“I’ve just realised, I’m probably not the best person to give advice on problems with parents,” Anakin said.

Luke laughed to himself: Anakin was about the best person possible for him to talk to about his Vader issues.

“Why not?” he said instead.

“I never had a father,” his father continued. “And the last time I saw my mother, I-“

Anakin trailed off mid sentence, staring at the floor, a strange expression crossing over his face. He looked over at Luke in horror. As their eyes met, he clapped a hand over his mouth, jumped up, and started backing away.

“I shouldn’t say that,” he stammered, shaking his head. “Why did I almost say that? And why did I tell you about Padmé, what am I doing?”

Padmé Luke thought.

“I don’t fucking believe it,” Anakin ran a hand through his hair and his eyes flicked around the hall in desperation. “I just... I just nearly told you about everything. What did you do?”

His frantic look turned into a suspicious glare and Luke raised his hands.

“Nothing!” he said.

“Liar,” Anakin stuck an accusatory finger in his face and it was such a Vader pose that Luke took a step back, feeling like he’d been shot. “You’ve done some kind of Sith mind trick on me, that’s why I feel this... this force connection thing,”

“I am not a Sith,” Luke growled back.

He’d spent too long fighting against Vader’s attempts to sway him to the dark side of the force for an earlier version of same man to accuse him of it preemptively. His straight forward reply seemed to throw Anakin off guard.

“I am not a Sith, and I never will be a Sith,” he continued. “I’m having a weird time on Mortis too, you know, but I’m not taking it out on you and accusing you of being an evil overlord,”

“How can I trust you?” Anakin yelled back. “How can I trust any of what you’re saying is the truth?!”

“What do you want me to say, the Force?!” Luke threw his arms up. “Maybe the fact that I’ve spent years fighting the Sith and losing everyone I loved to them, before having a massive guilt trip over the fact that ‘oh, maybe I should’ve joined them’!”

Anakin blinked a couple of times but Luke wasn’t finished.

“And hey, just as I convince myself that just because my father is a freaking Sith Lord, doesn’t mean I’m predestined for evil and am going to start murdering all my friends, you show up and start accusing me of what, mind tricking you? Manipulating you? Just to find out the name of your wife? The wife who is... dead in my time?!”

Anakin flinched, seeming to deflate slightly and he relaxed and looked away.

“Sorry,” he said. “I overreacted, I didn’t mean to accuse you like that. I’d just appreciate it if you could pretend this conversation never happened? My marriage is meant to be a secret,”

“A secret?”

“Jedi aren’t supposed to love,” Anakin scoffed. He paused, “I’m sorry about your father,”

“Don’t worry about him,” Luke sighed. “He chose his path. As for your wife, I won’t tell a soul, I swear. I’m not even from your time, so it’s not like I’ll be able to,”

Anakin grinned, and for a second, it looked like he was about to say something more when the Father reappeared in a puff of grey smoke that itched Luke’s throat and burned his eyes. He coughed.

“The time has come,” the Father announced.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Anakin takes the Son’s test and passes with flying colours

For a planet with only three inhabitants, there was really no need for an arena this size, Luke decided. The Father had positioned him on a sweeping stone platform overlooking the arena. Huge smooth stones towered around them as if ready to seat millions. The floor was far below them and patterned with an intricate mixture of light and darkness swirling around one another: true balance.

Luke stayed away from the edges as he watched his father and the Father down in the middle of the arena, even the Father’s huge frame dwarfed by the size of it all. Anakin said something to the Father, but Luke strained to hear more than a slight murmur on the wind.

With a shrieking roar, two winged creatures appeared in the distance, clutching humanoid figures in their talons. As they got closer, Luke could discern the figures of Obi Wan and Ahsoka; their bird-like captors came swooping down into the arena, landing at opposite ends. Dark and light.

Ahsoka yelled something, reaching her free arm out at Anakin, who was still stood by the Father in the middle. Luke leant forwards as far as he dared, trying to hear what was going on, but not trying to fall off this stone structure.

“Oh but you will,” the Father said, and his quiet voice echoed with enough power in the force for Luke to hear him easily, even from his position on the high ground. “I have ordered my children to kill your friends. The question is, which one will you choose to save?”

The Father appeared next to Luke, who tried to yell something along the lines of WHAT ARE YOU DOING but he found that the words would not leave his lips. He settled for an angry glare instead. Anakin evidently shared similar sentiments.

“NO!” he yelled up at him.

“Their powers are too strong for us, Anakin!” Obi Wan called out, loud enough to be heard. “Save Ahsoka!”

Ahsoka’s reply was indistinguishable and overshadowed by the roar of the Son clutching her, but it was evidently something along the lines of “No, save Obi Wan!”

“Let them go,” Anakin seethed, clenching a fist, and somehow, his words carried.

“Only you can make my children release them!” the Father replied.

Anakin turned away and bowed his head, fists shaking and Obi Wan said something. Luke was struck still and silent, helpless to do anything but watch.

“You will let them go!” Anakin commanded, thrusting out his arms.

The shockwave in the force was visible as it barraged into the winged creatures. He raised his arms and the Son and the Daughter shrieked as they found themselves lifted into the air, their prey dropping from their talons. The daylight flickered and Luke could only watch in awe as the heavens spun around them, the lights of stars streaking through the darkness that had been day five seconds ago. 

The entire arena started to glow with pinpricks of light, mirroring the skies above them. Golden streaks ran through the design and a bright light, enough to rival the Daughter’s own burst forth from beneath Anakin’s feet. Luke stared down at the arena below him.

Oh force, his father was powerful.

With a pull, the Children were dragged through the air towards him, roaring in indignation, before Anakin pushed them, and they were flattened against the stone walls that surrounded them. Once mighty beasts, they collapsed limply onto the floor but, determined not to be beaten so easily, they soon leapt back up, making direct attacks on Ahsoka and Obi Wan.

“Down!” Anakin cried, pulling the Son away from Ahsoka, and when he yelled, his voice echoed with the same reverberations as the Father’s.

The Son was sent flailing away from Ahsoka, landing on the floor, and Anakin turned his attention to the Daughter, who was poised to strike at Obi Wan. He reached out a fist and pulled her in, her brother was dragged along too, until fighting and squirming, they were brought in front of Anakin.

“On your knees!” Anakin yelled, and the Children had no choice but to comply. 

They shrieked and roared but in the end, the darkness faded away, and the beasts disappeared, when the shroud was withdrawn, there were two seven foot godly beings bowed down at Anakin’s feet. Luke shuddered as the faint sound of a respirator echoed through the arena.

“And now you see who you truly are,” the Father had reappeared down on the ground next to Anakin, and suddenly Luke had somehow appeared there too. He blinked, glancing up at the pillar behind him, then down at his feet. “Only the Chosen One could tame both my children,”

The Father sounded proud, but there was nothing but murder in Anakin’s eyes.

“I have taken your test,” he said, panting slightly. “Now fufill your promise and let us go,”

“Ah but you must understand the truth,” the Father laughed. “Now, all of you, leave us!”

Luke turned to Ahsoka and Obi Wan, more than ready to walk away with them.

“Stay, son of Vader,” the Father added and Luke froze on the spot.

Obi Wan’s gaze narrowed in suspicion and Luke unconsciously flexed his hand before turning slowly. The Father knew. Of course the Father knew, what had he been expecting, but the Father could tell them all.

“Do not trust him,” Ahsoka whispered to Anakin.

“You think?” his father replied.

“And Anakin,” Obi Wan caught Anakin’s arm and whispered something, but Luke heard it easily. “Do not trust Luke... he’s not what he seems,”

Thank you for the vote of confidence, Luke thought, mainly to try and hide the nagging anxieties tickling the back of his mind. What exactly had Obi Wan meant by that? 

Anakin just frowned, and shot him a weird look, but he tilted his head to the side in a vague gesture of ‘alright then’, before the Son, the Daughter, Obi Wan and Ahsoka were ushered out, leaving the Father, his father and Luke remaining.

“Do you feel your destiny?” the Father asked. “You must see it now. I am dying and you must replace me,”

“Replace you?” Anakin asked. “I can’t stay here!”

“But this yours! It has been foretold. The Chosen One will remain to keep my children in balance,”

“I don’t know why you dragged Luke into this then,” Anakin replied, narrowing his eyes.

“The son of Vader has power enough to rival your own,” the Father said, his eyes flitting towards the young rebel for a second. “While the chosen one himself is as the prophecy foretold, I’m certain I could bring a Princess and a smuggler here to prove to you that he would be just as competent,”

Han and Leia. Luke barely even realised what he was doing, a hot rage coming down over him and he pushed Anakin aside and jabbed a finger into the Father’s face.

“Don’t you dare touch them,” he snarled.

The Father just laughed and batted his finger aside.

“What say you, Chosen One and Son?” the Father asked, obviously picking his word choice very carefully. “Remain here and bring balance to the force,”

Behind him, Luke could feel Anakin backing away and he did the same.

“No,” they both said simultaneously.

The Father’s triumphant evil mods dissipated almost instantly, and he looked down, suddenly seeming old. “I cannot force you to do this,” he said. “The choice must be yours, but leave, and your selfishness shall haunt you, and the very galaxy itself,”

Vader, Luke realised with a start, the Father was talking about Vader. He glanced sideways at his father, the man who had just given up the chance to become a literal god for his friends and wondered if he should try and convince him to stay.

No. If Anakin stayed here, Luke would never be born. Without the destruction of the Jedi and the rise of the Empire, the rebellion would never be formed. Vader wasn’t the only figurehead of the Empire: the Emperor would undoubtedly still be able to warp that galaxy to his own design regardless of which pawns he had in his pocket.

Without Vader, the Jedi would still be wiped out, fascism would still rise, Alderaan would still be destroyed, but there would be no Leia to spark revolution, no Luke to win their greatest victory, Han would probably be killed by Jabba, and force knew how many countless others would never find the courage or inspiration to strike out against the oppressive regimes. 

The creation of Vader may have been the tipping point for the galaxy being plunged into horror beyond comprehension, but it marked the beginning of its return to better times. Luke had to trust in the force. He had to trust that it had chosen the right path, and trust that it would all turn out in the end. Everything had its reasons.

And so he stayed quiet. 

The Father lead them back out to the courtyard in front of the monastery. Two perfectly intact ships had appeared in front of them: the Clone Wars shuttle and Luke’s X Wing, and Obi Wan and Ahsoka were stood in front of them.

That wasn’t even the best part. Luke gasped in joy at the sight of the little astromech by his ship, all lights on and functioning. Artoo shrieked as he caught sight of him and came careering towards him, smashing affectionately into his shins.

“Artoo, you’re alright!” Luke laughed, crouching down next to him and running a hand over his dome.

[No] Artoo beeped back. [I need serious maintenance, my sensors are malfunctioning]

“What do you mean?” Luke asked. From what he could see, Artoo was functioning perfectly. “It’s just the planet, Artoo, not you,”

[No] Artoo was adamant. [I am picking up multiple impossible life forms]

“Time works a bit differently here,” Anakin said, looking down at the droid with a strange expression on his face.

Artoo’s dome swivelled around to him and he shrieked again. A spike protruded from his body and hit Anakin’s leg, sending an electric current through him, and he yelled out and jumped backwards.

“Artoo, what the fuck?!” he exclaimed.

[Enemy, designation Vader] Artoo replied. [Hostile]

Luke winced and glanced up at his father. Apparently R2 had just replaced all the Anakin programming with Vader, and hopefully none of them would figure it out.

“No, Artoo, it’s me, Anakin!” Anakin said. “Did you wipe his memory?” he turned on Luke, accusing. “Did he forget who I am?!”

“No!” To be completely honest, Luke was offended that he would even think such a thing.

“I believe I can sort the matter out,” Obi Wan said from behind them. “This Vader person, is he tall? Black mask, cape? Your father?”

Luke froze and he just stared at Obi Wan in abject horror. How had he known that? What else did he know?

“Yes,” he whispered quietly.

“Luke here has been lying to us,” Obi Wan said, addressing Anakin, and Luke couldn’t help but notice that he’d taken his lightsaber off his belt. “Last night, I had a series of visions,”

Oh that’s not good, thought Luke. Anakin glanced between the two of them, and Ahsoka just glared.

“He is the son of a Sith,” Obi Wan said. “And he has killed millions,”

The Death Star. Luke shivered slightly, trying to ignore the guilt that immediately flooded over him. He’d spent so long trying to come to terms with what he’d done, what he’d celebrated, but hearing it said in such an accusing way brought it all back.

“That’s not fair,” he whispered quietly. “You don’t get to bring that up.”

“Obi Wan,” Anakin said. “It’s fine.”

He turned on Luke, and to his pleasant surprise, Anakin just laid a protective hand on his shoulder.

“I already knew,” he said to Obi Wan, taking the wind out of his sails. “Luke told me about that, and how his father asked him to join him and he refused,”

“I see,” Obi Wan sighed. “I suppose that does simplify matters. Who are you?” he asked Luke. “What is your real name?”

Luke paled and stuttered something incomprehensible. He doubted being able to explain away ‘I’m Luke Skywalker, your son, and that Sith Lord we’ve all been talking about? Surprise!”

“It doesn’t matter,” Ahsoka interjected calmly. “We’re all leaving now, and we’ll never see each other again, so come on Master, leave the kid alone,”

Obi Wan raised his eyebrows, looking like he wanted to argue, but faced with both Anakin and Ahsoka’s glares, he rolled his eyes with a smile and turned, making his way up the gangplank. Ahsoka followed after him, shooting a mischievous smile at Anakin. Luke looked up at his father too, fully aware that he would never see him again, but instead of feeling sad, he just grinned.

His father thought that he had done the right thing. He was strong, and while he wasn’t quite the epitome of morality and being a model Jedi, he loved his wife and his friends with his whole heart, and Luke could tell he loved him too. It gave him hope. If Anakin truly was this strong, Vader couldn’t have destroyed him completely. There were flickers of Vader shining through Anakin, it was reason enough to believe that Anakin lived inside Vader too.

“Bye Luke,” Anakin said, moving to the foot of the gangway and hesitating there. “Good luck with the future... if you see your dad, give him a middle finger from me,”

Luke snorted and waved his goodbyes too. Anakin disappeared and he turned back to his X Wing and to Artoo.

[I thought Master Ani had been reprogrammed] Artoo beeped. [Did the virus malfunction and cause him to revert to his original programming?]

“No Artoo,” Luke laughed. “This place isn’t exactly anchored in time,”

[I’m not even going to try to process that] Artoo said. [I can’t save your butt if my CPU is fried]

“Straight in there with the sass, alright then,” he grinned.

Grabbing hold of the ladder, he hoisted himself up and into the cockpit. Artoo followed behind him, slotting neatly into the little astromech hatch and Luke pulled his helmet on. He grabbed the cockpit glass above him and yanked it down before staring his pre-flight checks. Systems all seemed to be normal so far... normal for Mortis, that was. 

The Jedi shuttle lifted off with a burst of its engines and Luke followed behind it. He didn’t even glance down at the giant monastery behind them, or the shrieking creatures that followed them through the sky.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Anakin has a nightmare, Ahsoka gets kidnapped, and Luke and Obi Wan crash and wreck their ships.

Anakin was exhausted, so the second their shuttle had taken off and Obi Wan had taken over the controls, he went back to the bunks and collapsed into a deep sleep. His dreams were more vivid and realistic as usual, and he tossed and turned.

_ He sat across from Luke, in the small medical bay of what looked to be an old freighter. The kid’s eye was bloody and his arm was clutched to his chest, the wrist blacked and ending in a stump, but he stared at him with strange indifference. Suddenly Anakin was struck with the feeling of being a Padawan again, on the receiving end of a ‘I’m not mad, just disappointed’ lecture. _

_ “You could’ve been so much better,” Luke said, and Anakin grimaced. “You could’ve made the galaxy free, for all of us; ended the war,” _

_ “How?” Anakin blurted, eyes widening.  _

_ “Instead you ruined any chance you ever had at peace, at happiness,” Luke spat. “Some Chosen One you are,” _

_ “That’s not fair!” Anakin said, feeling his face begin to heat. “What did I even do?” _

_ “Burned the galaxy to the ground,” said Luke with a sarcastic laugh. “And for what?” _

_ “This is stupid,” Anakin growled.  _

_ He tried to stand up from the bunk, but Luke lifted his hand and he found himself stuck to the seat.  _

_ “Join me,” Luke’s face split into an unnatural grin. “We don’t have to send the universe into ruin,” _

_ “Join you?!” I don’t even know what this is meant to mean!” _

_ “Don’t you?”  _

_ Luke’s face twisted and transformed into Padmé’s and Anakin felt his heart lurch at the sorrow in her warm eyes. He reached out to her but she sobbed and clutched her hands to her neck, shaking her head furiously. _

_ “Angel, what’s wrong?” he pleaded. “Please, talk to me!” _

_ “You’ll bring me nothing but misery, Anakin,” she cried. “Why would you do this?” _

_ Anakin opened his mouth to try and comfort her, or ask what he’d done wrong, but before the words could come spilling out, they were scorched by a burning pain. The walls of the medbay burst into flames and Padmé wiped the tears off her face and stood up, staring down at him as he fell to his knees on the floor. _

_ Anakin barely even noticed. All he could feel was the pain, the burning, scorching pain the shot through every fibre of his being. He couldn’t even scream; it was like his lungs had dissolved away to ash and his throat had been torn away from him. _

_ “Padmé please!” he choked out. _

_ He tried to reach out his hand but it melted away from in front of his eyes. Screams ripped through his wrecked throat and he was crying, or maybe his eyeballs had melted and were streaming down his burnt and ravaged face. In front of him, Padmé had vanished, her sorrowful gaze replaced by Obi Wan’s. _

_ “It’s the only way out,” he said, and turned his back on him. _

_ Anakin screamed again, but Obi Wan didn’t even look back. He walked away with a heavy purposeful stride, leaving his brother behind to writhe in burning agony. _

_ “They’re right, you know,” said a voice, and Anakin sobbed in relief as a freezing cold wind washed over him, giving him a small relief from the pain. “Join me,” _

_ “Join you?” _

_ All of a sudden, Anakin was standing on a bed of grass, tall palm trees blocking out bright sunlight overhead. The pain had melted away, and he was whole again, staring at a calm beautiful lake. It reminded him of Varykino, on Naboo. The source of that cooling wind, the Son, stood above the water, floating on the mists. _

_ “Join me,” the Son repeated, eyes burned into Anakin’s. “Together we can change the balance of the universe, my friend,” _

_ “By becoming a Sith?” Anakin said “Never.” _

_ He knew the damages Sith could do. He’d seen Obi Wan break down over Qui Gon’s death. He’d fought in the war against Dooku, allegedly controlled by yet another all-powerful Sith lord, and he’d comforted Luke over his Sith father. Like the dark side could ever do anything but destroy. _

_ He turned to walk away from the Son, ignoring the buildup of rage behind him. _

_ “We will DESTROY the Sith!” the Son yelled, dam exploding. He erupted into violent flames and his eyes burned brighter with violence and hatred. “And the Jedi!” _

_ Anakin ignored him. He just carried on walking away, until the force screamed at him and he spun around to see the Son’s winged beast form screaming, not centimetres away from his back. Hot flames crackled through the air and Anakin raised his arms defensively as it flew at his face. _

He woke with a gasp, sitting up in the hard uncomfortable bunk and scanning the room. Ahsoka stood, rummaging with the shelves, her back turned, and when she heard him wake, she looked over.

“Were you having a nightmare?” she asked, concern lacing her voice.

“Something like that,” Anakin groaned softly as she sat down on the bed next to him. 

He pushed himself up off the bunk and almost immediately fell over as the ship rattled and lurched.

“If you’re done napping, I could use a little help here!” Obi Wan’s voice called from the cockpit. 

“Yeah yeah, I’m coming,” Anakin said.

Ahsoka gasped behind him and he stalled. The cold invasive presence of the Son had returned, more abrasive and chilling than the cool it had been in the nightmare, and it sent a chill down his spine. Anakin turned to see the pale bald being, real this time, clutching his struggling Padawan.

“Leaving so soon?” the Son hummed. “Not without this, you won’t,”

He opened the emergency hatch and the two of them tumbled out into the clouds below. Ahsoka screamed as she fell.

“Ahsoka!” Anakin yelled, reaching out as if he could somehow catch her.

The Son’s cackling echoed in the wind as he transformed back into a winged beast, catching Ahsoka in his talons and streaking through the sky. Anakin rushed into the cockpit and threw himself down into the co-pilots chair, clicking buttons to transfer control over to him.

“What’s going on?” Obi Wan’s asked, oblivious.

“The Son took Ahsoka!” Anakin said, grabbing the joystick and making a sharp turn to follow him.

Obi Wan nearly fell out his seat, and from the corner of his view, Anakin could see Luke’s strange fighter (an X Wing apparently) twist around to follow them.

“What in the blazes are you talking about?” Obi Wan yelped from the floor, over the sound of beeping.

“Let me fly!” Anakin said, pushing Obi Wan away from the pilot’s chair and diving the craft towards the ground.

The Son was fast. He streaked through tall stone pillars, masked by the thick curtain of fog that hung around them but Anakin just tightened his grip on the controls and accelerated. He reached out with the force, trusting it to guide him through the hazardous maze and he felt a strange jolt as he brushed with Luke’s presence. The X Wing kept up with him easily; either future technology had advanced incredibly or Luke was just as skilled a pilot as he was. 

The two ships twisted and spun through the stone labyrinth, hot on the Son’s heels. Anakin could see Ahsoka glancing round at them, terrified, and he pretended not to notice Obi Wan gripping the sides of the seat so tightly that his knuckles went white. Just as he was about to collide with the Son, the winged creature completely disappeared through some bizarre trick of the force. 

Anakin drew in a breath and narrowed his eyes, squinting through the fog. His ship decelerated, Luke made a quick manoeuvre behind him to avoid crashing into his tail but Anakin had caught sight of a small shape moving in the fog. Obi Wan yelped as he stepped on it, sending the craft shooting into the abyss.

For a few seconds, the mist was too thick to see anything, but just as quickly as it had enveloped the ship, it dissipated to reveal a huge stone tower with a huge glowing green gem atop it.

“Look out!” Obi Wan’s yelled, grabbing the joystick and steering them away from the stone they were about to crash into.

Unfortunately, he swerved straight into Luke’s ship and the two ships collided with a sickening crunch, sending them skidding to the floor. Alarms blared in the cockpit and Anakin was thrown forward in his seat, jerking from side to side as the ship grated over rocks before finally coming to a stop.

This wasn’t his first crash landing, and it certainly wasn’t his worst. He groaned and rubbed his head as sparks flew off the broken tech around him. Obi Wan was laid out over the controls in front of him, he pushed himself up slowly and frowned at their surroundings.

“I didn’t think you saw it,” he said. “I didn’t realise Luke was there,”

“Of course I saw it!” Anakin replied. “It was a giant glowing green pillar!”

Speaking of Luke... The two of them climbed out the ship, jumping the last part of the gangway. The ship had crashed at an angle, and the loading platform didn’t quite manage to reach the floor now.

Luke’s ship had fared much better from the crash, probably because he’d had the sense to put his shields up. It’s landing gear was shredded and broken, the tip of the nose seemed slightly too flat and one wing was bent out of shape, but its young pilot had jumped out of the cockpit and was surveying the damage without much harm having befallen him.

Artoo wailed a threat as Anakin and Obi Wan stepped closer and Luke turned around with an optimistic grin.

“I guess we’re not leaving quite yet then,” he smiled.

“Artoo, come on!” Anakin called over to the XxWing’s cockpit as Artoo carried on beeping various binary insults. “What did I ever do to him?”

Luke smirked, like he was thinking of a joke. Anakin stuck his tongue out at the little astromech, before returning to more important matters.

“The Son has kidnapped Ahsoka,” he said. “We have to find her,”

The lighthearted expression was wiped off Luke’s face as the gravity of the situation set in. He nodded grimly.

“And I would say it’s rather obvious where he’s taken her,” Obi Wan said, nodding his head towards  the huge glowing pillar in the distance, that cut through the fog around them with an ominous kind of malice. 

“We have to hurry,” Anakin growled, starting forwards.

“Anakin, this wasn’t a mistake,” Obi Wan protested, moving in front of him and putting a hand on his shoulder. “He brought us here for a reason. We must not get involved. Any conflict here could have dramatic repercussions for the universe at large.”

“I don’t care,” Anakin said curtly, moving past him. “He’s too powerful for Ahsoka and I won’t leave her alone!”

Obi Wan frowned. “We’d be wise to confer with the Father first,”

“There’s no time,” said Anakin, with an anger he didn’t really mean.

“This is what he wants, to divide us,”

“It’s my fault he took her!”

“You must feel how strong this part of the planet is with the dark side. The Father will know what to do,” Obi Wan warned.

Anakin stopped, reaching out with the force for a second. Luke did the same, and the hairs raised on the back of his neck as he realised that Obi Wan was right, the dark side seemed through every crack in the rock. Anakin evidently couldn’t care less.

“The Father can’t help us,” Anakin sighed.

He turned his back on Obi Wan and started walking away, into the lure of the dark side. Luke stared after him as he strode towards the towering beacon of malevolence. His arm twitched, and he shot Obi Wan a side glance. The older Jedi just sighed heavily and turned towards him.

“He’s always on the move,” he said morosely.

Luke frowned slightly, but he nodded, “Should I go after him?” he asked.

“If it was up to me, I’d say that I don’t trust you,” Obi Wan said. “Forgive me, but war has made me somewhat suspicious, and you seem like you’re hiding something huge , even more so than the details of your parentage,”

Slightly offended, Luke opened his mouth to argue back, but Obi Wan interrupted him and continued.

“But... Anakin seems to trust you,” he said. “You’re clearly not one of my soldiers, so I cannot order you to do anything but I have the strangest feeling that even if I tried, you wouldn’t listen. Go, and make sure he doesn’t get himself killed. Or worse,”

That was a weirdly long way of putting it, thought Luke, but he appreciated the sentiment. He grinned at the Jedi and nodded, before turning to run off after his father.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> if you enjoyed, comments and kudos are always appreciated:)


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ahsoka has been caught by the throes of the dark side, and Anakin and Luke must fight to rescue her.

Clinging to the bare rock sides of a vertical cliff face by the tips of his fingers, Luke decided, was very far down on his list of things he wanted to repeat. Wind rushed up from below him, making his shaggy hair dance around in front of his eyes and he stared straight upwards through his fringe, refusing to glance down. Having already reached the top, Anakin was crouched just a few feet above him, looking down at him with a wicked grin.

Luke rolled his eyes and grunted as he pulled himself further up, scrabbling for small crevasses within the rock. He gripped a minute ledge and kicked himself upward, the rock under his boot crumbled and he shrieked as he found himself losing his purchase, tumbling down into thin air.

“Watch out!” Anakin reached out and grabbed his hand, halting his rapid descent. With their combined strength, and some additional help from the force, Luke was soon up and off the cliff. The two of them collapsed down on the floor, breathing deeply, and Luke steadfastly wished he’d appreciated horizontal rock more in this life time.

There was no time to celebrate though. Anakin picked himself and smiled tensely, turning to carry on, not even giving them a chance to rest their aching limbs. Luke groaned and rolled himself into a sitting position, before dragging himself upwards and following his father on towards the giant temple that grew closer and closer with every step.

Anakin’s worry was bleeding through the force with a frightening intensity; he was deeply scared for Ahsoka, and Luke didn’t blame him. He frowned as he thought, realising he didn’t actually know who Ahsoka was. She seemed too young to be a Jedi.

“Erm, I don’t want to be rude,” he said, his voice echoing across the flat stone around them. “But who exactly is Ahsoka?”

“My padawan,” Anakin said curtly.

“What’s a padawan?”

“My student,” he replied. “I’m supposed to teach her, and protect her, and now she’s in danger because of me,”

Luke’s eyes widened. Of all the stories he’d heard about his father, he’d never heard any mention of a student; he’d just assumed that Obi Wan was the only close friend he’d had.His heart was suddenly gripped by an icy cold fear: Ahsoka wasn’t alive in his timeline. Did that mean that Vader-?

He side glanced at Anakin, who was flexing his fingers: a habit he’d seen Leia do whenever she was particularly anxious (It was funny, how similar his father and his best friend were) and he tried to convince himself it wasn’t possible. Anakin cared too much about Ahsoka to kill her, even as Vader, surely he wouldn’t.

Having climbed over an oddly shaped wall, they reached the inside of the castle. It was a barren stone courtyard with a single limp tree in the middle of it, illuminated by strange red beads on the floor. Ahsoka sat in front of the tree, her back towards them and head bowed in a meditative position. Luke shivered slightly, his instincts prickling.

“Ahsoka?” called Anakin. “Ahsoka. It’s me; you’re safe now. Let’s go,”

“Are you proud of me, Master?” Ahsoka asked, without turning around.

Hearing the cold mocking tone in her voice, Luke made his decision and stepped back into the shadows. He had a very bad feeling about this, and he didn’t particularly want to get caught in the middle of whatever was about to happen. He pulled his lightsaber out from under his jacket and clipped it to his belt: visible but accessible. 

“What?” Anakin asked. He’d seemed tense about the place and the situation, but the strange question seemed to catch him off guard, and he looked around him awkwardly. “Uh, of course, Snips, of course I’m proud of you, but let’s get out of here,”

“He’s right,” Ahsoka’s voice went cold and she stood up, still facing away from them. Luke pulled the lightsaber off his belt, opting to hold it in his hand instead. “He’s right about everything,”

Then she turned around, and Luke caught his breath. Her eyes definitely hadn’t been that sickly pale gold before, with such deep purple shadows, and dark cracks splintered across her face and montrals. She looked unhinged and terrifying.

“You must join him!” she said to Anakin, not even glancing at Luke. “He only wants what’s best for the universe,”

“Hey, what’s wrong with you?” Anakin asked.

“Always with the criticism, Master,” Ahsoka sighed. “Never really believing in me, never trusting me. Well, I don’t need you anymore.”

“Ahsoka,” Anakin said. “Ahsoka, listen to me. He has done something to you. Snap out of it. This isn’t you?”

“Isn’t it?” Ahsoka yelled. “I feel more like myself than I ever have!”

Was that really what the dark side was like? Luke found himself wondering. Of the times he’d brushed against it, it always felt enticing, but in the cold and terrifying way of a whirlpool in a giant lake, sucking you in, inviting you to accept your watery death. Ahsoka made it sound enticing like deathsticks, getting you completely hooked to the way they opened your eyes until you couldn’t live without them.

“He asked me to give you a message,” Ahsoka said flatly. “He said, if you don’t join him, he’ll kill me,”

She laughed ecstatically.

“I will never join the dark side,” Anakin growled. 

Luke winced.

“And he won’t kill you, I won’t let him,” he said.

“Then you will be forced to kill me!” she yelled.

Ahsoka shifted into a battle stance, pulling a lightsaber off her belt. Luke motioned to go and fight beside his father, as it ignited slowly, but Anakin raised a hand in his direction, never taking his eyes off Ahsoka. Recognising his meaning, Luke stayed hidden in the shadows, but ready.

Ahsoka leapt from her position by the tree and struck downwards at Anakin, who raised his lightsaber over his head to block her. She continued to try attack relentlessly but Anakin dodged all her blows neatly, moving backwards and giving ground as they fought. Her swings seemed wild but precise, and Luke could tell now why Anakin had wanted him to stay out of it.

Had he wanted to, Anakin could’ve easily fought her as equals, and Luke was certain his father would win such a battle, but instead, he just dodged and blocked all her strikes, never once making any kind of move to attack or cause harm. He didn’t want to hurt her and she could tell. Every strike was more frustrated and wild than the last.

“Fight me!” she screamed. “Fight me, Master!”

“Ahsoka, please listen to me,” Anakin said. “Let’s just go home and forget about this!”

“Fight!” she yelled in reply.

“I don’t want to fight you, Ahsoka,” 

She grunted in frustration and kicked out, the blow landed on Anakin’s chin with a sickening thump and he was thrown backwards, his lightsaber falling from his hands and deactivated. Luke stayed put; trusting in his father to not get himself killed. The lightsaber skittered along the floor and Ahsoka backflipped away with surprising agility. 

“And now, the student will kill the master,” she crowed, staring down at Anakin, who was still bowed down on the floor.

Anakin stuck his hand out and the lightsaber rattled, Ahsoka looked behind her to see it and growled in frustration. She leapt up into the air, poising to strike a killing blow down on Anakin’s bent head, but just in time, the lightsaber flew into his hand and activated and he stood up, blocking her strike.

“Getting ahead of yourself, aren’t you Snips?” he smirked, pushing against her blade.

“Don’t call me that!” she yelled. “I hate it when you call me that!”

She stumbled and few steps back and broke their blade lock, before swinging in the other direction. Taken off guard, Anakin jumped over her lightsaber before blocking her next blow. His lightsaber twisted around hers in a way that was painfully familiar.

Luke gripped his prosthetic hand into a tight fist, seeing the move. Luckily, Ahsoka had more sense than he had and she let go of her handle, losing the lightsaber instead of her hand. It flew up into the air and, using Anakin as a springboard, she jumped up after it, catching it and landing back by the tree where she’d started.

Luke had had enough of standing around. He walked to beside his father and lit his lightsaber, staring Ahsoka down.

“You have a lightsaber?” Anakin asked, seemingly surprised.

“Yeah?” Luke asked. “Couldn’t you tell I can use the force?”

“Well yeah,” Anakin admitted. “But I couldn’t see one on you, so I assumed you’d lost it, or broken it,”

“You broke your lightsaber again Anakin?” asked a Coruscanti voice, and Obi Wan appeared on Anakin’s other side. He looked up at Ahsoka and frowned, calling up his own blade.

“Three Jedi,” Ahsoka said, igniting a second, smaller lightsaber. “Finally, a challenge,”

Seems a bit cocky, Luke thought, as she leapt down and attacked him. There was more power to her blow than he’d expected, and he stumbled backwards, twisting out the way of a second strike.

The three of them danced across the courtyard in flashes of blue and green. Luke had to admit, Ahsoka certainly was a formidable opponent, no matter how outmatched she was by Anakin and Obi Wan. Following their lead, he kept well out of the way while her attention was focussed on someone else, rather than attacking from the other side like he’d trained to.

“Any suggestions?” Anakin said loudly, pushing his murderous pupil away with the force.

“Yes, we cut her free,” Obi Wan said.

Luke gasped as he pulled out a second weapon. It was a stone sword, glowing turquoise with smoke drifting from it, and it emanated such a cold presence in the force that Luke’s hair stood on end.

“What is that?” he asked.

“It can kill the Son,” Obi Wan replied sagely.

“Where did you get that?” Ahsoka growled, her voice echoing with the Son’s reverberations. “Give it to me!”

She jumped forwards and attacked again, trying to seize it, but something screamed in the force. Luke looked up at the sound of a window shattering, and jumped out of the way as the Son and the Daughter went flying, landing in undignified heaps on the stone floor amongst shards of stained glass.

The Father followed, with ornate grey wings, and he landed in front of the tree.

“So glad you could make it to out little party, Father,” the Som said, standing up.

He thrust his hand forwards and red lighting shot out at him, but the Father just raised his hands and an invisible shield absorbed the attack. 

“You will stop this!” he ordered.

“You are too weak for me, old man!” the Son yelled, sticking out his other hand, increasing the intensity of the lightning. “You mean nothing to me anymore,”

Luke’s attention was caught by Ahsoka’s wicked smile and he tensed, suspicious. The Father’s feet started to slide along the stones at the onslaught of the Son’s attack. He kept on pressing forwards, pushing the Father back until, with a burst of red static, he was thrown backwards and collapsed. The Son jumped forwards and continued to electrocute the defenceless Father.

“Anakin, NOW!” yelled Obi Wan, tossing the stone sword in the air.

Ahsoka was too quick for them, and she leapt up in the air and caught it, running to the Son’s side. She turned back to them and grinned maliciously, before presenting it to him.

“Everything has transpired exactly as I planned,” the Son said, ceasing his attack.

Seeing the sword in Ahsoka’s hand, the Father stood weakly.

“You showed them the altar?” he asked, voice wavering. 

“I am sorry, Father!” the Daughter cried, leaning on Obi Wan as she stood. “I didn’t know how else to stop him!”

“Give it to me, child,” the Son said, reaching his hand out to Ahsoka.

With a glance back at Luke, Anakin and Obi Wan, she placed it into his outstretched palm. He smirked and lifted it, running a hand lightly over the edge of the blade.

“Thank you,” he said, spinning it through the air. “Your usefulness has come to an end,”

He extended two fingers and lightly brushed against her forehead. Whatever he’d done, it was enough, and she collapsed limply on the floor. Luke felt her presence shiver and drain away from the force around him and her lightsaber clinked as it rolled from her palm and onto the floor.

“NO!” Anakin screamed, and charged forwards.

The Son threw him backwards with a negligent brush of the force, and Anakin rolled along the floor, past Obi Wan and the Daughter. Luke rushed to his father’s side; luckily he seemed unhurt, and he reached out a hand to pull him up from the floor. Even holding his prosthetic hand, Luke could feel the anger and tension in his muscles. He literally had to hold his father back from trying to attack the Son again.

“The Jedi have brought me the dagger, and you have brought yourself,” the Son said scathingly to the Father. “Now, Father, you will die,”

He raised his handto plunge the blade down at him. The Daughter yelled and pulled herself free of Obi Wan’s grip on her arm, and with inhuman speed, she threw herself in front of her brother.

The dagger struck her right in the back. She gasped, and stumbled slightly, grabbing onto the Father for support and he fell to his knees, cradling her. The Son stared at his own hands in disbelief, horror written prominently across his face.

“Why?” he cried. 

Thunder crackled ominously overhead and he launched himself up in the air, transforming into the winged beast with a heart-shattering cry of pain.

Son gone, Anakin wrenched himself from Luke’s arms and ran over to Ahsoka. Luke followed hot on his heels and stood behind him as he bent over his student’s body. Her eyes were white and glassy, staring vacantly up at the sky. Anakin shook his head helplessly and Obi Wan placed a comforting hand on his shoulder. Luke grimaced: so that was why he’d never met her.

There was a sickening sound from beside them as the Father pulled the dagger out of the Daughter’s back. He stared at it for a brief second before tossing it disdainfully behind his back to clatter along the stone floor.

“My daughter,” he cried. “What have I done?”

The Daughter coughed weakly and grasped the Father’s hand in hers.

“Do not hate him Father,” she said. “It is his nature,”

_That seems a bit stupid,_ Luke couldn’t help but think. _He just stabbed you and you’re saying not to blame him for it?_ Then, he berated himself for being snarky about someone who was dying.

“No,” the Father said, wracked with emotion. “All is lost. The balance has been broken! I thought, by bringing you here, I would... but I have destroyed everything!”

“Can you help her?” Anakin trembled, still kneeling over Ahsoka’s prone body. 

“There is no light,” the Father said. “The evil has been unleashed, and the dark side shall consume her,”

“You must help her!” Anakin cried out.

“I cannot undo what is done,” the Father replied. “There is no hope,”

“Yes, there is!” Anakin protested. “There is always hope!”

Luke smiled sadly, thinking of Leia. The Father bowed his head in defeat, but with the last of her strength, the Daughter reached a shaking hand up to cup the Father’s cheek. The light surrounding her was flickering and fading alarmingly. Seemingly too weak to speak, she stared at him forlornly, using her other hand to point to Ahsoka’s body, and rest her hand on her shoulder.

Thunder rumbled and the Father narrowed his eyes, understanding what she’d meant. He looked down and brushed her hair out of her eyes before standing up and making his way over to stand between the Daughter and Ahsoka. He gestured wordlessly towards Anakin, and Luke moved out of his way as he stood up to stand beside the Father. He knelt down between the two of them, the Father’s hands on his shoulders and closed his eyes.

The Father made eye contact with Luke, who understood in that moment exactly what was happening, and what he had to do. He silently sat down cross legged at their feet, opposite Anakin and laid his hand’s gently on both Ahsoka’s and the Daughter’s legs, feeling a jolt of an electric shock pass through him as he made contact.

“Then let my daughter’s last act be to breathe life into your friend,” the Father said, raising his arms.

Anakin rested a hand lightly on the Daughter’s forehead. His other hand brushed over Ahsoka’s and, as his fingers made contact, a bright light burst from the spot. Luke’s head was thrown backwards at the sheer power of the force coursing through his veins. He could do little more than gasp as it rocketed through his body from his left side to his right. It burnt like fire, and stung like ice, and filled him with a cool warmth unlik anything could possibly describe.

His vision went white, but he could see everything. The Daughter’s life force bled through him and shot into Ahsoka, as if they were all one single being. It began to breath life back into her and he could feel her heart beginning to beat like it was inside his own chest.

Suddenly, the warmth turned into a burning heat, and he jolted, feeling like he’d been set on fire. He tried to hold on, for Ahsoka, but the pain was excruciating and every nerve in his body was being ripped apart. With a gasp, he was forced to let go and he fell forwards onto the ground, holding out his arms to catch himself before he smashed his face in.

Opposite him, Anakin had also been forced to let go, and he was bent over Ahsoka, panting. He looked over his pupil, and the desperation in his eyes was almost tangible. Her eyes remained white and glassy and Anakin hung his head in sorrow. Luke swallowed down his shame and pushed himself up to his feet.

Suddenly, Ahsoka jolted upright and started to cough: she was alive! Anakin threw himself at her, and clung to her shoulders in a fierce hug, but somehow delicate, like he was afraid she might break if he squeezed too hard.

“Hey Snips,” he laughed softly.

“What’s going on?” she asked.

Luke couldn’t help the wide grin that split his face as Obi Wan discreetly brushed away a small tear and handed Ahsoka her lightsabers.

“Not much,” Anakin grinned. “It’s good to see you,”

“As the balance in this world crumbles,” the Father said. “So shall war escalate in your galaxies. As my son has descended into the dark side, the machinations of the Sith shall only increase the power of the Separatists and the Empire. How many of your friends shall die a painful death, fighting for a hopeless cause?”

Luke clenched his fists, and looked down at the ground. The Father had a point; however hopeless their fight seemed at the moment, there was always the chance it could be so much worse.

“An Empire?” breathed Ahsoka, staring at him with wide eyes. “A sith Empire? How far in the future are you from?”

“I don’t think I can tell you that,” Luke cringed. “I don’t wanted to upset the balance or anything,”

“Come on,” Ahsoka urged. “You’re a soldier aren’t you, your whole life must have been torn apart by this war. Just imagine, if you tell us, we might be able to stop it from ever happening!”

“Ahsoka,” Obi Wan put a hand on her shoulder. “I have to agree with Luke. Knowledge of the future could have dangerous repercussions for the universe at large,”

She sighed, and nodded reluctantly.

“We’ll stop your son,” Luke promised.

“No!” the Father said, “You must go now! He needs your ship to leave the planet, you must leave before he can take it,”

“What about you?” Obi Wan asked.

“I shall mourn all that I have done,” the Father said morosely, looking down at the Daughter’s corpse. “And all that is yet to be,”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i have a shit ton of WIPs and I try to write at least 500 words every day to keep in practice and hopefully improve myself. problem is, inspiration is evading me, so if you have any star wars prompt ideas you can give me, I’d be so grateful! :)


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ahsoka repairs the ship, Anakin runs off without thinking and Luke gets some training

Luke’s ship had been easily salvageable, and together with Ahsoka’s help, it was flight-ready within less than ten minutes. He’d need to replace the landing gear and a sizeable part of the left s-foil but the engines were all working and all systems were online. As long as he didn’t run into any Imperial blockades on his way back, he’d be fine.

The shuttle, on the other hand, was anything but fine. Luke took shelter from the cold and was perched on the hatch above the engines, handing tools down to Ahsoka. Anakin and Obi Wan were sat at the loading dock, talking softly.

“Is there a 5mm wrench up there?” Ahsoka asked, sticking her hand out. 

Luke took the 4mm tool from her and reached back for the toolbox, handing her the correct one.

“Thanks,” she said. “I’ll tell you one thing, when this is all over, I’m asking for a mission to Naboo,”

“I’m guessing it’s nice there then?” Luke said.

“You’ve never been to Naboo?” Ahsoka sounded shocked, her voice echoing through the engine parts and up to Luke. “It’s beautiful,”

“It’s a water world, isn’t it? I haven’t really been to many of them,”

“Well, I’d say Kamino’s more of a water world,” Ahsoka said. “Crowbar?”

He handed it to her.

“Naboo is more in between, it’s all grassy plains and swamplands.” She laughed shortly. “Tell you one thing though, the last time I went there, I spent most of my time underground,”

“I can’t imagine that was by choice,” Luke snorted.

“Oh force no,” she replied. “We stopped this mad scientist tried to engineer a plague to wipe out the galaxy but then we had to quarantine in his underground lab when it leaked,”

“Was everyone okay?”

“Master Kenobi and Master Skywalker managed to get an antidote in time, and save a whole planet while they were at it,” she snorted, and Luke got the distinct impression she was rolling her eyes. “I reckon Anakin just did that last part to impress Padmé though,”

“Padmé?” Luke jumped at the sound of his mother’s name.

“Senator Amidala,” Ahsoka said, oblivious to Luke’s startled desperation. “Anakin has such a crush on her, he’s a moron. But, don’t tell him I know. He gets embarrassed,”

A crush was a bit of an understatement. Luke couldn’t help but grin. He knew how terrified his father was of anyone finding out about his secret relationship, but hearing that his parents were so bad at it that Ahsoka thought Anakin had a schoolboy crush made him oddly happy. It was nice, to go from abandoned orphan, to evil father, to love struck parents.

Ahsoka groaned from down below, and before Luke could ask what was wrong, she popped her head back up and pulled off her goggles.

“Well, do you want the bad news, or the really bad news?” she asked, drawing Anakin and Obi Wan’s attention.

“Let’s try the bad news, laced with a little optimism,” Obi Wan replied.

“We’ve got two cracked shilo pins, a busted power converter, the engine should be fired twice to dump debris, and the backup vents need charging,” she said.

“I can lend you a couple of shilo pins,” Luke cut in. “I can’t lock my S-Foils into attack position anyway, so if I do wander off into an Imperial navy base, I’m toast, shilo pins or no,”

“That’s perfect!” Ahsoka grinned. “Not you being toast obviously, but now I just need to work on the vents,”

She hopped back down into the engine and Anakin came over to stand behind Luke, looking down at her in the little nest of wires, oil stains and spare parts.

“Can you fix it?” Obi Wan asked.

“With enough rerouting, welding and duct tape, we should have enough power to leave the atmosphere,” she replied. “After that, we’ll just have to hope we don’t run into any Seppies,”

“Sounds like we’re in the same boat then!” Luke said cheerfully.

Anakin smiled and pulled a small emergency speeder off the wall. Luke frowned and jumped up to follow him as he pushed it off the side of the ship.

“Where are you going?” he asked.

“To see the Father,” Anakin said. “I’m not convinced that the son will be contained here without our help. Perhaps we should make a stand.”

“Anakin...” said Obi Wan, coming off the gangplank. 

“If I don’t get the Father’s blessing to leave,” Anakin interrupted. “It’ll haunt me forever,”

He kicked off and accelerated his speeder before either of them had the chance to argue and Luke just watched as the dust flew up around his retreating figure. He stepped forwards a bit, out of the shelter of the shuttle’s tail and into the pouring rain, raising his real hand to feel the water bouncing off his skin and he felt a huge smile grow on his face, despite the circumstances.

“You’re from Tatooine,” Obi Wan said, and Luke jumped.

“How did you know?” he blurted.

“Anakin does the exact same thing every time it rains,” he said. “He hasn’t lived there in over ten years but he always acts like he’s never seen so much water before,”

“This is the second time today,” Luke said, gesturing in the direction his father had sped off in. His orange flight suit was mainly waterproof, but his hair was getting plastered against his forehead. “Does he always run off like that?”

Obi Wan laughed darkly. “He does. He’ll be the death of me someday,”

“Hopefully not any day soon,” Luke winced, thinking of the death star.

Obi Wan watched him curiously.

“Who are you, Luke?” he asked. 

“What?”

“You’re incredibly strong in the force, on par with Anakin even, but you have barely any training,” Obi Wan stroked his beard. “Did you leave the Order to fight in your war?”

“I was never part of any Order,” Luke shrugged, choosing his words carefully. “But I did have some Jedi training,”

“I hope you don’t mind me saying so,” Obi Wan said. “But your teacher doesn’t seem to have been very competent,”

Luke tried to hold in a laugh, knowing exactly who Obi Wan was insulting. 

“They didn’t have much time,” he said. “How could you tell?”

“I couldn’t help but notice, while duelling Ahsoka, how your form is rather disordered, almost as if you just react to what’s going on around you, rather than relying on any formal training,” Obi Wan explained, “Not to mention, shields are rather flimsy, and I have no doubt that I could break them with ease.“

“I’d like to see you try,” Luke huffed, a bit insulted.

“I would rather not,” Obi Wan said. “You’re just as powerful as Anakin, there’s no doubt in my mind that you would expel me as soon as you noticed, which would certainly be rather unpleasant,”

“Then what’s the point of having shields, if I could just kick you out?”

“Brute force is not an proxy for defence,” he said. “Should you encounter an opponent with similar power to your own, there is no guarantee you’d be able to get rid of them, leaving yourself vulnerable and open, and should an opponent breach your mind without you noticing, you would have no chance,”

“That makes sense,” Luke sighed. “I never really had anyone to teach me this stuff,” 

“I’m sure,” Obi Wan asked. “I can only imagine the extenuating circumstances that caused the Order not to recruit you,”

“I don’t want to say too much about the future, but it wasn’t exactly the Order’s fault.” Luke said. “I was a moisture farmer until I was nineteen. That’s when I first even learnt about the force, and my father killed the guy who tried to teach me just a few hours later, and then a year later, this other guy tried to teach me but I ran off to save my friends before we could get to anything important,”

“Dear me, there’s quite a lot to unpack there,” Obi Wan frowned. “But I won’t ask, I sense that the future would only disturb me.”

Luke laughed quietly.

“If you are comfortable with it,” Obi Wan offered. “I would be more than happy to pass on my own knowledge,”

“I would love that!” Luke gasped, straightening up, and Obi Wan chuckled at his bright eyed enthusiasm.

“Very well. Is there any area in particular you are eager to learn about?”

“Obviously enough, shielding is my weak spot,,” Luke asked. “I get blanket shielding, and strengthening your shields and all that, but could you possibly teach me something more specific?”

“Such as how to hide small pieces of information without revealing that you are trying to hide them?”

“Yes!”

“I believe I can be of some use in that area. Sit,”

Luke brushed off his suit and sat down, legs folded, on the muddy ground, still out of the shelter of the shuttle’s wings. The ground was wet beneath him, and he could tell that his bright orange suit would be dirty brown, but he didn’t really care. Obi Wan raised an eyebrow and sat down in a meditative position across from him, in the dry beneath the shuttle.

“You are familiar with releasing yourself into the force, I presume?”

Luke nodded: that was the basic concept that Yoda had spent nearly three months hammering into Luke’s head, and he could now slip into a meditative trance at the drop of a hat, no matter if he was even hanging upside down from a tree branch with rocks flying perilously close to his face.

“Take a deep breath,” Obi Wan instructed. “And as you breathe in, feel yourself drifting into the force. Fade away everything physical around you, until you are above everything you see,”

As eager as he was for lessons, Luke steadfastly did the opposite. Ben Kenobi had briefly taught him to do the exact same thing (funny, how that worked) and, while it had been a passable method for Luke on his own, he’d since discovered from his own merit, a far more effective way to connect with the force. Rather than fading away from the physical, Luke preferred to embrace it.

He exhaled slowly, feeling the rush of air through his lips. The rain bounced off the skin of his face, and dripped from his fringe, and he tilted his head upwards. Every single raindrop fell down towards him and he slowed his thoughts in time to their uneven beat.

The rain was cold but soothing. The more he felt of the droplets tracking their way down his face, the more the force danced around him, frenzied but oddly calm. In his mind’s eye, he traced the force upwards, away from the thrum of rain and volatility of mortis, and suddenly, he was in the force itself.

Meditation was a lot like seeing space and land combine. The force stretched around him, infinite, oddly stronger than he!d ever felt it before, and he could see pinpricks of life all around him through the ghost of his surroundings. He was, all of a sudden, everywhere and everything. Directly ahead, was a star he recognised as Obi Wan’s presence, flickering and exploring his surroundings with solar flares. Ahsoka blazed in the force beside him, oddly powerful for a mere student, and if he concentrated hard enough, he could make out the supernova of his father off in the distance.

“Can you feel yourself in the force?” Obi Wan’s voice asked. 

It sounded distant and disembodied, and Luke sent a wave of affirmation over to him. There was a spike of surprise in a general response, and he replied with confusion.

“Most Jedi aren’t able to focus their emotions enough to send,” the disembodied voice explained. “Only those with strong bonds to one another have that ability. I would only expect my own student to be able to do such a thing with me, not a complete stranger,”

Oh. Sure, Luke hadn’t had much experience of being around other Jedi, but he’d been able to speak through the force with his father, despite spending his whole life thinking he was dead and then discovering he was an evil sith lord, and then not speaking for another month while said father sent countless bounty hunters after him. Surely, that couldn’t exactly be seen as a ‘strong bond’.

Not to mention, he’d managed to speak to Leia through the force countless times, starting at Bespin, and she wasn’t even force-sensitive. Her instincts and incredible intuition had made him suspicious once or twice, but he’d checked: her presence was as small and bland as the average person’s, perhaps just a little brighter. 

If anything, it was abnormally dull. Leia was far too fiery and passionate to have the force presence of an Imperial outpost receptionist. It was almost like... Luke swore to himself, how in Corellia’s nine hells had he never noticed this before?!

“You seem distressed,” Obi Wan said. “Release your agitation,”

_“It’s not distress,” _ Luke tried to reassure him, but for some reason the words wouldn’t travel through the force. He repeated them out loud, feeling oddly detached from his own body. He could barely believe it: Leia was force sensitive, she’d just had it suppressed for safety in her Imperial occupied world! It was, quite frankly, ridiculous that he’d never thought of that before.

“Whatever it was, release it,” Obi Wan said. “Now, concentrate on the specific memories that you want to manipulate,”

Luke hesitated; honestly, that was the last thing he wanted to do. If he tried to think about all those instances where someone called him by his full name, there was a high chance he’d accidentally slip up and project them over to Obi Wan, which would have disastrous consequences.

Not comfortable with using his words, Luke projected a sense of ‘danger, stay away!”’ to Obi Wan. It was a little crude, but the message got across: Obi Wan retreated and the bright light of his force presence dimmed and withdrew, giving Luke some more much needed privacy. He breathed deeply and focussed on the name ‘Skywalker’. Various voices rushed through his head.

_ I’m Luke Skywalker, I’m here to rescue you! _

_ The Force is strong with you, young Skywalker. _

_ The bounty is for Luke Skywalker: the pilot who destroyed the Death Star. _

_ Commander Skywalker, what are you doing?! _

“Now, use the force to mask these memories,” Obi Wan said. “You can draw on it and manipulate it into any shape of your choosing, in this instance, concentrate on it overlapping those memories as something new,”

_ I’m Luke Lars, I’m here to rescue you! _

_ The Force is... with you, young Lars _

_ The bounty for Luke Lars _

_ Commander Lars, this is suicide! _

Suddenly realising he hadn’t been breathing, Luke gasped for air and his eyes shot open. The force dissipated from around him as he was unceremoniously yanked out of his meditation, returning back to the physical plane, sat on the muddy ground opposite Obi Wan.

“Are you alright?” Obi Wan asked.

Luke nodded wordlessly, and he continued.

“You’ll feel a specific part of the force connected to that aspect that you wanted to change. All you have to do to disguise those memories is pull on that thread, and the force will mask them for you, like a blind over a window. Now it might seem simple right now but be careful not to overestimate your own power. When a powerful force-sensitive tries to see inside your mind, it will take a substantial amount of energy to pull that blind downwards, especially under external stresses,”

Luke wasn’t so naive that he couldn’t read between the lines: Obi Wan was talking about torture and interrogation. While he was unlikely to need to hide his own name under interrogation (half the galaxy was well acquainted with ‘Luke Skywalker, rebel terrorist’ by now), it could certainly come in useful at a later date, with other information, and he needed to practise this skill.

He had to teach Leia this.

“If you’re comfortable,” Obi Wan said. “I could try and test it out for you,”

Luke paused. That would definitely be a good measure of his abilities, but if he slipped up, Obi Wan would have full access to everything he was trying to hide: the future of the galaxy itself, and there was no telling how that would play out. Still, Luke was confident he could hold his own, and should his defences start to falter, he was sure he could push Obi Wan out before he heard so much as ‘Sky’.

“Sure,” he said, throwing caution to the winds.

Obi Wan nodded, and shut his eyes. Hairs rose on the back of Luke’s neck as he felt the Jedi’s presence invade his mind, slipping through his flimsy outer shields. The memory of the memories he’d just manipulated was dragged to the surface, and Luke clutched on a tether of the force, pulling it with all his might.

_ Luke SLars _

_ Luke Lars _

_ Luke Lars _

Satisfied, and not wanting to press any further, Obi Wan’s presence slipped away, and he opened his eyes again. Luke shot him a grin.

“Impressive,” Obi Wan mused, “You are indeed a quick learner,”

“Thanks!” Luke said.

“However... I seem to recall you introducing yourself as Luke Solo,”

Oh. Oops.

“Solo is the name of one of my closest friends,” Luke laughed awkwardly. “It was just the first thing that came to mind and-“

Midway through his sentence, Luke trailed off. Something prickled along the back of his neck and he felt his every nerve jump, like he’d been electrified.

“Something’s wrong,” he murmured, trying to pinpoint the cause of his unease.

Obi Wan frowned at him, clearly not having felt anything.

“Anakin!” Luke gasped as he realised. “Something’s wrong with my- with Anakin,”

Without even waiting around to see how Obi Wan would react, Luke jumped up and shoved past him and back into the ship’s cabin. There was a loud clang and a hissed expletive as Ahsoka undoubtedly banged her head on something down below, trying to get up to see what all the fuss was about but Luke ignored it, wrenching a speeder off the wall and dragging it outside. Ahsoka called something up to him, her words falling on deaf ears as he was already gone.

“Where are you going?” Obi Wan asked as he set the speeder up outside.

“To see the Son,” Luke said, jumping on it and revving the engine. “He has Anakin, I’m sure of it,” 

“Be careful,” Obi Wan replied. “And bring him back safely.”

Luke paused for a minute and looked him in the eye. 

“I will,” he promised, before kicking off his speeder and streaking off into the distance in a cloud of smoke and dirt.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> to be fair, I’ve never really understood why Obi Wan had such a huge impact on Luke in the OT. he was just like his crazy neighbour who whisked him off into space, taught him how to whack things with a blindfold on, then got killed a couple of hours later. even with all the ‘i knew your father stuff’... hmm... ah well.
> 
> hope you enjoyed!!! :)


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Luke confronts his father and the Son...

If there was one thing Luke was forced to admit about the dark side, it was that they certainly had a dedication to aesthetics.

In a cloud of wet dust, he dragged his speeder to a stop in front of a huge black outcrop of rock.The dark side of the force hissed in his ear and raked its fingernails along the exposed skin at the back of his neck and Luke shivered, wrapping his arms around himself almost involuntarily.

Red light danced around him from the depths of the hole: lava. Deciding not to risk the hovering capabilities of his speeder, or the heat capabilities of his skin, Luke turned his attention towards finding a better entrance.

There. It wasn’t entirely obvious, but it wasn’t totally hidden either. A small granite pathway to his left led into a gaping maw in the rock, a tunnel that (hopefully) led down to wherever his father and the Son were.

Mortis only had three inhabitants, and Luke could barely think of any reason as to why the Son would have a secret entrance, especially when all three inhabitants were godly beings with wings and no reason to fear something as mortal as lava. He decided it was probably best not to question it: never look a gift Bantha in the mouth, as Aunt Beru used to say.

Almost instantly upon entering the tunnel, he was hit with a wave of nausea. The pathway didn’t particularly smell or look like anything bad, but in the force it stank of death and decay. The dark side shrieked and laughed as it careened around him, filling his ears with poisonous whispers.

_ Don’t you want to be powerful, and end the war? _

_ You’re weak and useless. You can’t save them. _

_ A son’s place is at his father’s side. _

_ You killed them all, and you celebrated it. _

_ Your friends will die, alone and in pain. _

_ Don’t you want the power to save them? _

Luke growled and swatted the words away. This wasn’t the time to get sucked into the well of the dark side. He just had to get in, save his father, and get out. He took a deep breath, closing his eyes, drawing on the calm within him, and the whispers slowly faded away until they were barely tangible.

When he opened his eyes again, he was blind. The tunnel was so dark, that whether his eyes were open or closed, it made no difference at all, and he was hesitant about reaching for the force to guide him. There was too much of a risk that that he’d lose his concentration, even slightly, and he’d end up dragged into the depths of the dark side: the last thing anybody needed right about now. 

Seeing no other option, Luke slowly reached for his lightsaber, prying it carefully from his belt and snapping it on. The green light lit up the crevasses and cuts in the walls ahead of him, including a rather vicious looking number of holes in the floor and tripwires.

It was ridiculous. Who exactly was the Son expecting to trap?

Guided by the dim light of his weapon, Luke managed to manoeuvre around all the traps and carry on down the path. At the end of the tunnel, he could see a dim orange glow and, hearing faint voices, he grinned in relief: he was finally out of there.

The inside of the cavern certainly didn’t disappoint: it was tall and archaic and lit by the dancing glow of lava painting the floor. The pathway spat him out rather abruptly on a slope of black stone and Luke found himself skidding down the surface, before catching himself on the side of a rock. He collided with it heavily, and all the breath was knocked out of his lungs.

Putting a hand to his aching ribs, Luke winced: that was definitely going to bruise. He crouched down and stared out at the rock beds in the sea of magma, seeing the Son and his father stood in the middle of one close to him, close enough to hear their confrontation: Anakin’s lightsaber was raised in an offensive position and he glared at the Son with a fierce determination.

“There’s no use for such crude instruments here,” the Son hummed.

With a wave of his hand, Anakin’s lightsaber was deactivated and yanked out of his grip, flying into the Son’s reach. He slotted it onto his belt and turned around, and Luke shivered at the malicious calm on his face

“I have a gift for you,” the Son said. His voice was melodic and lilting now, like the calming tones of a mother rocking her baby to sleep.

“I’ve had enough of your trickery,” Anakin growled in response. 

“Oh, but you’ll like this one,” The Son turned back around to face him. “I promise,”

There was absolutely no way that either of the, were going to like how this played out. Luke huffed silently to himself and glanced along the rocks, searching for a suitable way to get to them without being seen by the Son. He had to stop him, and without the element of surprise, he stood little chance.

“What if I could show you the future?” the Son asked.

Oh force no, this was definitely not going to end well. A strange fog descended over the cavern and Luke stood up, abandoning his cover. He had to put a stop to this, element of surprise be dammed. Anakin winced and stepped back, eyes closed. He shook his head, like he was trying to dislodge something inside his mind.

“No!” he whispered, clutching at his temples. “No! No! Stop it!”

_ “Obi Wan has trained you well”  _ whispered an all-too familiar mechanical baritone, and Luke nearly tripped over, blood freezing in his veins.

“Know yourself,” the Son crowed, descending on Anakin. “Know what you will become!”

Anakin was stumbling backwards, still clutching his face in his hands and breathing heavily. He growled and jerked his head to the side, desperately trying to fight away the visions of the future.

_“Hold on,” _ Luke said through the force, “ _I’m coming”_

_“Please, stop this! _

The mist was almost too thick to see through. Luke crashed his shin against another rock and hissed in annoyance. His silent exclamation of pain was echoed by a loud shadowy groan, a ghostly figure of Obi Wan appearing in the dark fog swirling around them. He was choking, and in pain. The sobs and screams of various voices echoed emptily, crowding around Luke’s ears and driving away all potential of rational thought.

“I will not look!” Anakin cried from the middle of the maelstrom, and somehow Luke could hear him perfectly.

_ “The Force is strong with you!”  _ cackled a decrepit malicious voice. 

He recognised that voice from Imperial broadcasts: the Emperor, and just as the connection was made in his mind, a dark hooded figure materialised in front of him, shooting white hot lightning from his fingertips.

The vision faded, and was quickly replaced by a Jedi younglings cowering in fear from a lit blue saber. Luke fought back the urge to wretch at the terror in the child’s eyes.

_ “ Anakin, please!”  _ cried a woman, and Leia appeared, in an old fashioned Senatorial dress.

“Padmé!” Anakin cried out, and Luke’s breath hitched in his throat

“Mother?” he whispered, reaching out a hand, but she dissipated in a cloud of smoke.

_ “ You were my brother, Anakin!”  _ Obi Wan yelled in her place, igniting his lightsaber in a battle stance. It slashed downwards, and Luke flinched, but the vision was gone, replaced by a far more recent one.

_ “ You killed my father!”  _ His eyes widened as a vision of himself appeared, holding his old blue lightsaber in trembling hands. His face melted away into a mess of horrifying wrinkles; two burning sickly yellow eyes glaring out from under folds of skin.

_ “ A powerful Sith...”  _ The Emperor mused.

_ “ I HATE YOU!”  _ Anakin’s disembodied voice screamed, and Luke’s stomach lurched as he saw a green laser shooting towards Alderaan. The planet exploded in a cloud of fire and debris, and he heard Leia cry out.

_ “ No, I am your father!” _

“No, no, no!” the real Anakin’s voice whimpered.

He had to stop this. Luke was completely blind in the fog, he could see nothing but disturbing visions and death around him, but he knew that he needed to save Anakin,

“NO!” Anakin yelled, and the whole cavern shook with the agony in the force.

The black skull mask floated in the air below him, filling the cave with rattling mechanical breathing. The fog faded away, and Luke could see Anakin on his knees in the middle of the stone platform. His shoulders heaved and his hands were pressed firmly over his ears.

“Now do you see?” the Son asked, like a concerned parent. 

“I will do such terrible things,” Anakin’s voice wavered. 

“Yes,” the Son said. “But it doesn’t have to be that way. The choice is still yours to make,”

Anakin stood up slowly.

“How?”

“The future, by its nature, can be changed,” the Son said. “Join me. And together we will destroy this Emperor you see in your visions,”

Luke’s stomach clenched, this was giving him a horrible type of deja vu.

_ Luke. You can destroy the Emperor. He has foreseen this. _

“Then we shall end war, corruption and suffering throughout the galaxy!” The Son raised his fist.

_ With our combined strength, we can end this destructive conflict, and bring order to the galaxy! _

“Will we bring peace?” Anakin asked with a heavy voice.

“Of course,” the Son replied, holding out his hand.

_ Luke Skywalker had looked at the hand outstretched to him, offering him the power to end the war and bloodshed, and he had refused. He had trusted his instincts, and chosen death over the dark side, staring his father dead in the eye as he let go, and tumbled off the gantry into the bottomless abyss below. _

Anakin Skywalker looked at the hand outstretched to him... and took it.

_____

“NO!”

The scream was torn from Luke’s throat before he even had a chance to register it. The fog had faded away entirely and the two figures in front of him turned to look at him: the Son and Anakin.

But was that Anakin? His eyes were cracked and golden, dark shadows spewing their way down his face like blackened veins. Vader? Somehow that didn’t feel right. Vader in the force was a black maelstrom of hatred and anger; this was sadness and regret.

“My my,” the Son laughed. “It appears we have an uninvited guest,”

Luke growled, eying the stream of magma cutting him off from the Son. He bent his knees and used the force to propel him forwards, landing just on the edge and took an unbalanced lurch forwards to stop him from toppling backwards.

“Luke, I-“ Anakin’s voice wavered with some indiscernible sorrow.

“Save it,” Luke snapped, glaring up at the Son. “You haven’t done any of that yet,”

He ignited his lightsaber with a snap-hiss, and raised it, levelled at the Son’s face. He’d seen the Father grasp the blade of Anakin’s lightsaber with ease, and there was no telling if his Children had those same abilities, but he had to try. The Son just grinned at him, dark eyes burning into his like embers.

With a cry, Luke leapt forwards and brought his blade down, aiming to strike the Son straight in the head. To his surprise, a blue blade stopped his and he stared at his father in horror.

“What are you doing?” he hissed.

“I’m so sorry Luke,” Anakin said. He looked on the verge of tears. “But I can’t let you kill him. I need him! You’ve seen the future, you’ve seen what will happen if I don’t do something about it,”

“So you’re going to sell your soul to a monster in order to make everything alright?” Luke said. “Do you not think maybe that’s what happened last time?”

He raised his lightsaber for another blow, but Anakin was faster. With an almost unnatural strength, he intercepted the strike and Luke found his weapon yanked out of his grip, clattering along the rock floor. He jumped sideways and raised his fist; the lightsaber came shooting back across the float and into his hand.

“You can’t trust him,” he said, igniting the blade and tilting his head over to the Son, who was stood behind Anakin with a deceptively peaceful smile.

“What other choice do I have?!”

Luke nearly laughed.

“What other choice?” he said, spinning his lightsaber to adjust his grip.

“Yes!” Anakin’s voice cracked. “I hurt Padmé, I hurt Leia, I hurt you! And Ahsoka, and Obi Wan and so many other people... I have to stop this, don’t you see?!”

“This is the only way,” The Son whispered.

“No,” Luke spat. “No, this is not,”

He launched himself at the Son again, blocked by Anakin but fighting to get through to the monster in front of him.

“Do you remember what you told me?” he said. “Last night? When I told you about my father?”

“Stop,” Anakin whispered.

“When I told you that my father sliced off my hand and demanded I joined him, what did you say?” Luke continued with a growl. He accentuated his point by striking with hammering blows, and with every attack, Anakin’s defence got weaker and weaker. “You told me that sometimes you have to choose between what’s right and what will save people?”

“Stop it!”

“I chose what was right,” Luke hissed. “I chose to leap to my death rather than join the man who could end the war, and you told me I’d made the right decision,”

With a cry, Anakin flourished his blade and Luke’s was ripped out of his arm. He felt a sharp jolt fly up his arm as the tips of his mechanical fingers were ripped open, and his lightsaber fell to the floor again, landing at Anakin’s feet. His father called it up to him, golden eyes were wide and unhinged. Their colour flickered incessantly as he held his shaking blade up to Luke’s throat.

Luke stared at him defiantly, making no move to call his lightsaber back to his hand. He could feel his father’s indecision raking through the force, making it cry and scream as it whirled around. The dark side continued to hiss in his ear, but he barely even noticed, too focussed on the way Anakin’s clenched fist trembled. The Son’s burning ember eyes flickered between the two of them, an unreadable expression on his face.

“SHUT UP,” Anakin cried, trembling with anger. “You know NOTHING of what you’re talking about, you have no idea what I will have to do!”

“I saw the visions,” Luke said. “I know-”

“You know?!” Anakin laughed. “You think you know, because you saw a few pictures in the force?!”

He gestured with his saber as he talked, and Luke took a small step back, out of its way.

“Twenty two years,” Anakin hissed. “I just had twenty two years worth of death and pain and... servitude,” he spat the word like it burned him. “All shoved into my head at once. Do you have any idea what I’ve done?!”

Not wanting to risk speaking, Luke shook his head. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see the Son grinning widely.

“I have to stop it,” Anakin spat. “And I need power to do that. I will find the Emperor, I will kill him for what he has done and I will ensure that no harm will ever come to anyone I love, least of all by my hand,”

“You don’t need the dark side to kill Palpatine,” Luke growled back. “I’ve seen what you can do, I-“

“What did you just say?” 

Luke frowned at his father, who’d stilled rather suddenly, his face growing pale.

“You can kill the Emperor with your own power?” he offered. “You don’t need to submit yourself to yet another dark power,”

“What is the Emperor’s name?” Anakin demanded.

“Palpatine,”

Anakin’s shoulders slumped, and his sword hand loosened, the blade at Luke’s throat drooping slightly. Luke searched his eyes desperately, trying to figure out what he was thinking. He stared ahead, almost looking straight through Luke.

“Father?” he asked tentatively.

Anakin’s gaze snapped back to reality and Luke shivered as their eyes met. That burning golden colour had deepened to a fiery orange, almost the same glowing red as the Son’s and, despite the fire that danced behind them, Luke felt nothing but cold. His breath caught in his throat and he took two steps backwards, nearly toppling into the magma behind him to get away.

“I see,” Anakin said, and his voice echoed deep and mechanical. 

“Good,” The Son crowed. “You see the treachery and the lies you have been fed. It angers you,”

“It does,” Anakin said simply, and raised his blade.

Two things happened at once. Luke, seeing Anakin’s lightsaber come down towards him, cried out and dove to the side, raising his arms in a futile attempt to protect himself from a fatal blow that never came. Luke’s lightsaber in Anakin’s other hand ignited with a burning hiss, and almost in slow motion Anakin struck upwards and to the side, neatly piercing the Son’s chest.

Struck unawares, the Son never even had a chance. He gasped and looked down slowly, like he couldn’t understand what had happened. He reached his hand up to the blue hole in his chest before staring up at Anakin with wide eyes. The Son shook and fell backwards, like a discarded puppet, collapsing with a sickening sizzling noise into the lava behind him.

“I’ve made the mistake of trusting a Sith lord once before,” Anakin said to the slowly melting corpse in front of him, almost too quietly for Luke to hear. “I won’t make it again,”

Luke picked himself up slowly. His father stared down at the bubbling mess the Son had melted into, a lightsaber in both hands and his back to him.

“Anakin?” he asked tentatively.

He almost held his breath as Anakin turned around, searching his face for any signs of the dark side. To his relief, his father’s eyes were blue and the shadows had receded. He made eye contact with Luke and smiled sadly.

“I’m so sorry,” he said.

That was all it took. Luke stumbled forwards into his father’s arms, enveloping him in a bone-crushing hug. Anakin buried his face into his shoulder and held him tighter, until Luke could barely breath, but he didn’t care. All he cared was that his father was here, and with him, no matter what God of the Sith stood in their way. 

“I’m sorry,” Anakin repeated, once they finally let go. “I hurt you so much, there’s nothing I can do to apologise enough and I know I have no right to your forgiveness but please, tell your sister too that I’m sorry for everything,”

“I will,” Luke smiled. “you ha-“

He paused as Anakin’s words set in.

“WAIT, WHAT?!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> drinking game: take a shot for every time i used the word “eyes”  
> (but just be glad I didn’t resort to ‘orbs’)
> 
> this chapter really was a bitch to write, but I hope you enjoyed!  
> comments and kudos are always appreciated :))


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Anakin finally tells Obi Wan how much he means to him and Luke gets stuck in some wire.

Luke’s heart raced as he clutched the back of Anakin’s robes, their shared speeder streaking along Mortis’s dust strewn floors back to the ship. While it was technically Luke’s (the Son had apparently sent Anakin’s spiralling into a lava-y death), Anakin had been adamant that he should pilot and Luke had agreed. He didn’t exactly feel in the right state of mind to drive safely right now anyway.

A sister.

He had a sister. And not only that, his sister was Leia, the Princess of Alderaan. His closest friend and the person he trusted most in the universe had been his twin all along. Almost as soon as Anakin had repeated his bombshell sentence and frowned and asked if he hadn’t known, she’d jumped straight into his mind. Who else could it have been?

There’d always been some indescribable connection between them, and, like the naive moron he was, he’d just assumed that was how it felt to crush on a girl for once. For a while he had almost made himself believe that. (He refused to think about the med-bay incident). But now this all made so much sense.

They must have been separated at birth. A small hole in Luke’s heart burnt in resentment for whoever had made that rescission and sent them apart. It wasn’t just that she’d lived her life as a Princess on a distinguished planet renowned for its culture and politics, while he’d been stuck on a crime ridden dustball where fashion meant sewing wamp rat skin into a poncho, but he’d spent his entire childhood feeling like there was something wrong with him, something missing. he’d thought he’d figured out what that had been all along when he was around 14, but to think: a twin sister had been the missing hole in his soul and if it wasn’t for the extra-dimensional time travelling god planet he wouldn’t never have known.

He shouldn’t resent whoever had made the decision to keep them apart though. There was no doubt that it had been done for their own safety and despite the whole wamp rat poncho and feeling like an outsider thing, he’d grown up with a loving and accepting family, and he wouldn’t have changed it for the world.

Well, maybe some better clothes wouldn’t go amiss...

Luke was unceremoniously yanked out of his musing by Anakin swerving the speeder around some rocks a little too fast.Luke almost screamed, clutching the back of his father’s robes even tighter. Anakin turned his head and laughed, his hair flying into Luke’s face.

“Don’t worry!” he yelled. “I’ve got it all under control!”

“Watch where you’re going!” Luke shrieked, as another huge rock loomed in their path in front of them. Anakin jolted the speeder to the right, knocking the breath out of Luke’s lungs.

“Trust me!” Anakin grinned. “I won the Boonta Eve Classic, this is nothing!”

“You won the Boonta Eve?!” Luke repeated incredulously, imminent threat of death by speeder crash overshadowed by the mention of podracing. “You’re kidding!”

“First human ever!” Anakin said proudly.

“You were my idol!” Luke gasped. “I spent so long trying to get around Beggar’s Canyon because I wanted to be like ‘Ani’!”

“How fast did you do it?” Anakin asked.

“No idea,” Luke said. “My T-16 didn’t have a speed gauge, but it was fast enough for Uncle Owen to ban me for life!”

“Oh I’ll bet you listened to that ban,”

” Of course I did!” Luke grinned sarcastically. “Who do you think I am?!”

“A Skywalker, that’s who!”

That infectious grin on Luke’s face only widened, and he gripped on tighter. He found himself wondering if Leia had ever done something like that, if she’d ever taken a break from her royal senatorial duties by sneaking out, hijacking a speeder and racing around the Alderaani mountains at breakneck speed. Maybe he should challenge her to a race sometime, as brother and sister. (!!)

Eventually, their impromptu landing site came into view. Obi Wan was seated outside the ship in the same meditative position Luke had left him in, but by the lines crinkling his forehead, he was just repressing the urge to start pacing backwards and forwards along the dirt.

His eyes opened as the speeder approached and Luke could feel the relief bleeding out into the force. Anakin kicked the speeder into a stop behind him and practically stumbled off to envelop him in a hug. Obi Wan’s eyes widened, like this was a huge surprise and his arms flailed.

“Anakin, I-“ he stammered.

“I love you Obi Wan,” Anakin said into his shoulder, and Luke felt like maybe he should look away. “I don’t think I’ve ever told you this but you have to know: you’re my brother and I love you so much,”

Obi Wan’s face softened and his arms tightened around Anakin.

“What’s brought this on?” he asked quietly, and Luke decided yes, he should go find Ahsoka.

Luke entered the ship to the sound of metal clanging and the hissing of soldering wires. He sat down at the edge of the hole in the floor, dangling his legs down and swinging them aimlessly.

“Master?” Ahsoka called from within the belly of the ship. “Can you lend me a hand?”

Briefly toying with the idea of yanking off his prosthetic hand and chucking it down, Luke allowed himself a small grin.

“It’s just me,” he said. “Anything I can do?”

The hand was surgically attached to his arm and, as funny as the joke would’ve been, navigating through Mortis and flying back home without a hand (not to mention having to explain to Leia and the Alliance medics why he was missing a prosthetic) would not be fun.

“You got arms?” she joked, and Luke laughed to himself again

“Technically,”

“Perfect,“ 

He hopped off the side of the hole and landed down in the base of the ship with an unsteady thump. The work nest was deeper than he expected and he was forced to stick out his arms to scrabble for something to regain his balance with, catching something solid and twisting round in an attempt to free himself. He only succeeded in entangling himself further in the bed of exposed wires and fuel lines.

One of the wires around him was bare of any insulation, and he hissed as it stung against his skin. His hand twitched and jumped around as the current messed with his circuits. Ahsoka giggled at him from the corner of the cubby hole and he shot her a dirty look as he unwound himself from the impossible situation he’d somehow got into and whacked his hand against the side of the wall to get it back up to speed.

Now free of the tangled mess of wires and electricity, he stared down at the dirt that now coated the bottom of his overalls and sighed to himself. It wasn’t anything new; this orange flightsuit was laden with grease and grime, and tiny bit of ship dirt wouldn’t change any of that but he was beginning to get concerned that he’d eventually end up looking like an imp without any orange on him at all.

Either that, or Leia would flat out refuse to let him inside the base until he’d cleaned himself up a bit. Well, maybe she would let him in once he explained that he was her brother (!!!). 

“You know,” Ahsoka said. “If you were Anakin, I’m 90% sure you would’ve just pulled off your hand and chucked it down here. I’ve got to stop phrasing it like that,”

Luke bit back a grin.

“What did you need help with?” he asked her.

She wiped her forehead with the back of her hand, gesturing to a jumble of loose wires sticking out of the wall.

“This fucking backup vent,” she complained, before clapping her hand over her mouth and shooting him a glance. “Sorry,”

“I’ve heard worse,” Luke shrugged.

The alliance cafeteria certainly couldn’t be considered a convent, after all.

“Okay, well, I just need you to hold it all together while I attach it to the wall,” Ashoka said.

Luke nodded and sidestepped Ahsoka to make his way over to the broken up backup vent.He had to admit, she really was a good mechanic: the insides of the ship might not look pretty but there was no doubt it’d work. Aside from the gaping hole in the wall, of course.

“You want me to hold the grill on?” he said, pushing it up against the edges of the pipe.

“Bend down a bit,”

He obliged and Ahsoka leant over his head, reaching down with the tools. Her lek dangled in front of his face as she worked, obscuring his view but he just carried on pressing the air vent against the wall, trusting her not to cut his fingers off. 

“Is that ash?” she asked, and Luke didn’t need x-ray vision to know she was staring at the dust on his fingers. “Have you been taking death sticks?”

“What?!” Luke nearly dropped the air vent. “No! It’s from a volcano!”

“Oh right, sorry,” Ahsoka said.

There was a pause in the conversation and the humming of Ahsoka’s drill continued, its vibrations carrying through the wall into Luke’s hand.

“I don’t think death sticks even leave ash on you,” Luke said thoughtfully.

“i wouldn’t know,” Ahsoka sighed. “I’ve been at the temple since I was three, it’s not like there’s much drug use there,”

“And you’re a kid,” Luke pointed out.

“And I’m a kid,”

With the clattering her jerk of a drill, the screw landed in place and Ahsoka whooped quietly. 

“One down, three to go!” she cheered. “Shift your hands to here would you?”

Luke blindly followed her instructions, and three screws later, they had a working backup vent on their hands. Ahsoka stuck her hand in front of his face and, gathering her meaning, he gave her a high five. 

“Oh fuck, where did I put that wrench?” he heard her mumble to herself and the hand disappeared from his field of view.

To the sound of parts clattering around him and an “Aha!”, Luke pushed himself up from his achy knees and stretched, hitting his hand on the wall again. Ahsoka appeared next to him a new wrench on her belt, and Luke winced, trying to ignore the fact that the fifteen year old girl was nearly as tall as him.

He stepped back over to beneath the hole that lead out to the rest of the ship, frowning as he realised quite how deep it really was. Resigning himself to having no other way out, he reached up, standing on his tiptoes to clasp the lip of the hole and pulled himself up out and onto the ship’s floor. The effort strained his muscles but he forced himself not to shake. He didn’t want to look weak.

When he’d freed himself from the ship’s underbelly, he grinned and turned around, ready to offer Ahsoka the hand she’d obviously need to get out. After all, she was shorter than him, and if he could barely reach how could she?

To his surprise, Ahsoka was not down the hole, waiting for help to get out. Instead she was stood on the other side of it, opposite him, and Luke felt his face darken as he realised she’d simply used the force to boost her jump and gotten out of there without any effort at all.

He coughed and rubbed at his nose.

“We should go tell Anakin and Master Kenobi that the ship’s ready,” Ahsoka said, oblivious to the embarrassment shooting through the young pilot beside her.

With the effortless wave of a hand, she resealed the hole in the floor and pulled the shuttle’s ignition chip from the dashboard, tucking it into her belt pocket. Then, as she walked out, she chucked the various tools clipped to her belt at a toolbox in the corner with less than stellar accuracy.

Luke sighed to himself as he followed her out of the cockpit, through the hold and out to where Anakin and Obi Wan were. Obi Wan was perched on the back of the speeder, stroking his ears thoughtfully, while Anakin paced up and down in front of him, leaving a rut in the dirt at his feet. As he approached, Luke could hear the end of their conversation. 

“-and I feel like if I did say, then the whole universe would collapse into a shithole, but I can’t just let-”

“What’s going on?” Ahsoka asked as she appeared beside him.

Anakin visibly jumped: a feat that should have been impossible for a Jedi capable of sensing people sneaking up on him. As Obi Wan started telling Ahsoka that they no longer had to worry about the Son, Luke raised any eyebrow and sent a vague feeling of concern in Anakin’s direction. The power of the feelings love and care that were shot his way almost instantly nearly blew Luke off his feet and his eyes widened in shock. It almost felt like the Death Star had just been fired on him.

Evidently his fears that his parents never loved him were completely unfounded; if anything his concerns should be the other way round.

But still, there was a nervous edge to his force bond with Anakin: too much fear and guilt had slipped in there alongside the affection.

_“Are you alright?”_ he asked Anakin, sending the words through the force in the same way he had to Leia that disastrous time in Bespin.

Anakin jumped again, turning his gaze on Luke. Obi Wan paused his explanation of Anakin pushing the Son into lava to watch the two of them with the crease of an eyebrow.

“How did you do that?” Anakin asked wildly

“Just send the words through the force,” Luke frowned. Obi Wan had had a similar reaction: was this really so revolutionary?

Anakin pursed his lips in concentration.

_”LIKE THIS?”_ he screamed into his son’s head and Luke winced.

_“You’re trying too hard.”_ he said. “ _Focus the words like you would emotions and send them over.”_

_“How about now?”_ Anakin said, at a normal level, and when Luke confirmed it was perfect, his face lit up. “ _This is so cool. I wonder why we can do it and no one else can...”_

_“It’s probably just because we’re family,”_ Luke said.

_“Maybe it’s because we’re half force” _ Anakin hummed.

_ “What.” _

Anakin had a look on his face that suggested he was about to explain, but Luke thought the better of asking before any words could escape his metaphorical mouth and held up his hand, fully aware that Obi Wan and Ahsoka were watching their silent exchange with wide eyes.

_“On second thoughts, I probably don’t even want to know,”_ he said. “ _Tell me later maybe? For now, I just wanted to ask are you alright?”_

_“I should be the one asking you that,”_ Anakin replied. “ _You just discovered you have a sister, that’s one hell of a bombshell, how are you feeling?“_

_”Wonderful!”_ Luke said. “ _I always felt like Leia was the sister I never had, but don’t change the subject. Twins and a lifetime of evil is a bigger bombshell than a sister.”_

_“Promise me you’ll never join the dark side”_ Anakin said, and the sudden change in conversation made Luke frown in confusion.

_“I would never,”_ he said. “ _What brought this on?”_

There was wavering hesitation in Anakin’s mental voice. “ _The Son gave me a vision of you and me fighting. he said. the Emperor was there, and I threatened Leia. You drew on the dark side and attacked me, the last memory I have is you cutting off my hand, pushing me down some stairs and standing over me, poised to kill.“_

“Oh,” Luke said out loud.

He felt weirdly numb; like his head should be swimming in guilt and confusion but he just felt disconnected. So this was his future: killing Vader and joining the Emperor as his apprentice. Through the fog of disassociation, e felt a small sense of fear pool in the pit of his stomach. Would he kill Han or Wedge or Chewie? Would he destroy the rebellion? Would he... kill Leia?

Anakin was watching him with a guarded expression, evidently ready to jump to his side if he started to have an adverse an effect to the future as Anakin did. Maybe there was just not as much connection between being told you’d become a sith lord in the future and actually having visions of yourself doing it, but Luke didn’t feel the same pain as Anakin must have in that lava lair.

“Luke?” Anakin asked.

“I’m fine,” he replied, brushing it off. “It’s like I said, the future doesn’t matter now,”

“Of course, I have absolutely no context as to what just occurred,” Obi Wan said with a general wave of his hand. “But I concur. The only thing we should be focussed on right now is the present, which means finding a way off Mortis and back to our relative time zones before we, as Anakin so eloquently put it ‘collapse the universe into a shithole’,”

Luke couldn’t help but grin, and it seemed Obi Wan’s casual dig at Anakin had really lightened the mood. Even the air felt warmer as Ahsoka leant over to elbow Anakin in the ribs and he playfully shoved her away in retaliation.

“Well I think we should find the Father before we get out of here,” Ahsoka said. “It’s the least we could do, to tell him Anakin turned his Son into melted lava goo,”

“I doubt that’s a sentence any father would want to hear about their son,” Anakin said, looking at Luke. “I know I certainly wouldn’t,”

“Now now Anakin, I was under the impression that you were firmly dedicated to the rules of the Jedi Order,” Obi Wan said dryly. “A son should be the last thing on your list of wants,”

“Imagine having a tiny Skyguy running around,” Ahsoka joked. “Wouldn’t that be a nightmare?”

_“You didn’t tell them?”_ Luke asked silently, looking over to his father.

_“I figured we’d done enough damage to the timeline as it is,”_ Anakin replied, somewhat wistfully.

_ “Fair enough.” _

“Oi you two!” Ahsoka yelled, and Luke looked up to see that she and Obi Wan were halfway up the gangway already. “Aren’t you coming?”

“I mean, I do want to get out of here,” Luke yelled back.

He grinned at his father and ran off over to his X-Wing. Artoo beeped happily upon seeing him pull himself up the ladder and into the cockpit.

“Hey Artoo,” he said, flicking various switches for pre-flight checks. THe dashboard beeped and complained about the damage to the nose and the malfunction with the S-Foils, but luckily it all seemed to be flyable. Artoo trilled something about ‘typical dangerous piloting’, and Luke laughed, lifting his X-Wing up and off the ground to follow the Clone Wars shuttle away to find the Father.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Luke in Chapter 8: finds a secret entrance to an evil lava lair, sneaks in, navigates his way over lava islands while braving horrifying force visions, fights his mind controlled father, manages to break him free from the Son and causes a literal God of the force to become melted evil goo.
> 
> Luke in Chapter 9: falls down a hole, gets himself tangled in some wire, is barely taller than a 15 year old, can’t get out the hole


	10. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Obi Wan, Anakin and Luke go to tell the father about what just happened, but something is wrong...

At this point, Anakin didn’t even have it in him to be confused anymore. He remembered with certainty that after leaving the monastery last time, they’d flown for at least an hour at high speeds, before going on a ridiculously fast chase that would‘ve made any normal pilot black out. There’d been enough time for him to nap, have a disturbing nightmare and chase after Ahsoka, before crashing in a blaze of glory.

Long story short, they’d travelled far.

So why was it that within ten minutes of deciding to find that Father and jumping into their respective ships, that the monastery was peeking ahead on the horizon?

“Is that-“ asked Obi Wan from the copilot’s seat.

They’d decided that it was best to only have one designated pilot and, seeing as how Anakin was the most likely to seize the controls, it was probably for the best that he had them anyway. Obi Wan had been more than happy to pass the responsibility over to him.

“The monastery?” Anakin finished for him. “I think so,”

“Ahsoka isn’t going to like this,” Obi Wan sighed. “She would’ve wanted to see the Father too,”

This time it had been Ahsoka’s turn to fall asleep as soon as the shuttle had left the ground. The aftermath of the Son’s poison and a solid two hours in a hole of grease and faint exhaust fumes had really taken a toll on her. It hurt Anakin’s heart to see a fifteen year old girl looking so world-weary and he’d told her, in no uncertain terms that they weren't leaving this planet until she was asleep.

“We’re not waking her,” he said firmly.

“I would never have suggested such a thing!” Obi Wan said. “She needs her rest,”

“Bit rich coming from you,” Anakin grinned under his breath, and Obi wan just glanced out the window, pretending he hadn’t heard a thing.

As the monastery drew closer, Anakin guided the shuttle down onto the flat stone outside the monastery's stone steps with practiced ease. Luke’s X Wing followed behind him with the same proficiency and, through the windshield, Anakin could see Father stood at the foot of the stairs, arms clasped behind his back as he watched the two ships descend down towards him.

“Well, then, let’s explain the situation and get out of here,” Obi Wan sighed.

He unclipped his safety belt and stood up. Anakin squinted out of the window at the Father as the engines dwindled down to silence. Something itched at the back of his mind.

“I have a bad feeling about this,” he murmured as he copied Obi Wan and followed him out of the cockpit.

He leant around the side door on his way to the exit, peering at Ahsoka in the darkened room of the hold. She was curled up on her side, facing away from the door. Her shoulders were rising slowly and steadily, and from the calm hum of the force around her, Anakin could tell she was in a deep peaceful sleep. He smiled, and closed the door behind him.

The ramp had been snapped in the crash, and Anakin was forced to jump down from the back of the ship onto the floor beside Obi Wan. He couldn’t help but whistle appreciatively at where Luke’s ship had been landed; there couldn’t have been more than a couple of meters of error room between the wings of their two ships. Luke pulled off his orange flight helmet and shook out him hair, before leaning over to Artoo from over the cockpit glass.

“Stay with the ship, Artoo,” he said faintly.

That prompted a wild flurry of protesting beeps and wails that even Anakin couldn’t make sense of. He frowned and took a small step forwards, confused as to what could’ve caused such an adverse reaction in Artoo. Sure, the little astromech was never the best at following direct orders, but that had always been for general sassines reasons. This was bordering on downright panic.

“I know, Artoo, easy,” Luke said, evidently used to whatever this was. “But I’ll just be right there, see,”

Artoo wailed, and Luke patted his dome, before jumping down from the cockpit and jogging over to where Anakin and Obi Wan were stood.

“Is he alright?” Anakin asked.

“He just doesn’t like staying with the ship,” Luke shrugged. “I would’ve thought you knew that?”

“He never had any problems with it as far as I know,” Anakin hummed, staring at the astromech with a thoughtful expression.

“Oh… I don’t know why then,” Luke said.

The Father cleared his throat from across the courtyard and Anakin jumped, whatever he was about to say forgotten almost immediately. The three of them walked on over until they were stood in front of the Father himself.

“I believe there is something you wish to tell me,” the Father said, and his voice grated against Anakin’s ears.

“Indeed,” Obi Wan said. “I regret to inform you that your Son attempted to attack Anakin,”

Hairs were prickling on the back of Anakin’s neck and he shifted, trying to pinpoint the source of his unease. Obi Wan didn’t seem to notice a thing, but when Anakin glanced over at Luke, his son had a frown on his face, and an uncomfortable grimace. They made eye contact.

_“I have a bad feeling about something,”_ Luke said.

_“Me too,”_ Anakin replied _. “Stay on your guard.”_

_“Where’s Ahsoka?”_

_“Napping.”_

_“Good for her.”_

“I understand,” the Father said, Obi Wan having finished his explanation of what Anakin had told him was going on. “It was, after all, inevitable,”

Anakin had only been a father for a day, and he’d never even met his daughter, but even so, he knew that anyone who’d just lost two children in the space of a few hours would be almost inconsolable in grief. Sure, it may have been different for celestial beings, but surely if your son tried to kill you, murdered your daughter in front of you and then was pushed into a stream of lava by another person he’d tried to murder, there would definitely be some kind of reaction.

The father seemed far too calm and collected, and it unsettled Anakin.

_“Luke,”_ he said through the force. Man, this telepathy thing was amazing.

_“Something isn’t right, I know,”_ Luke replied. His face remained impassive, and Anakin couldn’t help but be impressed. _“He was just nearly killed because of an issue with old age, but he has no sign of injuries or weakness”_

_“I didn’t even notice that,”_ Anakin admitted.

_“We have to do something.”_

_“Obviously! But what?”_

“You seem distracted.” the Father said to Anakin, who jumped.

“I do?” Anakin laughed awkwardly.

“In his defence,” Luke said. “He did just survive a life threatening attack by the embodiment of evil,”

“Of course,” the Father nodded. “You make a good point, young Skywalker,”

...Fuck.

A cold flush rushed down Anakin’s back and his heart lurched. His gaze snapped to Obi Wan. His mentor’s shoulders tensed, a small gesture that would’ve been almost unnoticeable to anyone else.

“Who?” Luke laughed lamely.

“You, of course,” The Father’s calm face hid a hint of shadow.

“I suppose, I see now why you went to such great lengths to hide your identity,” Obi Wan said quietly.

“Master, I-”

“Spare me, Anakin,” Obi Wan sighed, raising a hand from his robes. “We have bigger issues at the moment than an illegal, illegitimate child from the future,”

“Not technically illegitimate,” Anakin mumbled, too quietly for anyone to hear.

Obi Wan had turned away from him, and back towards the Father, like he was ashamed. The embarrassment washed through Anakin, to be replaced by a cold rage. How dare he just ignore him like this? Obi Wan knowing about his secret relationship was one of his greatest fears, it had haunted him for years, and now it was finally true, and he was ignoring him? Like it was nothing?!

_“I’m sorry,”_ Luke whispered into his mind, and the cold washed away. Anakin blinked and looked over to him, shooting him a small smile.

_“It’s not your fault,”_ he said _. “It’s the Father’s, there’s something wrong.”_

_“That’s true. We have to do something. Do you have a plan?”_

_“My plans tend to just involve running headfirst into danger and hoping for the best.”_

Luke coughed into his elbow, obviously hiding a laugh, and Anakin allowed himself a small grin. Obi Wan didn’t even turn back towards him, and the disregard grated along Anakin’s mind.

_“It seems like we have something in common then.”_ he said _. “That’s actually how I lost my hand.”_

_“No way! Same!”_

At the same time as sending Anakin the mental equivalent of a giggle, Luke nodded seriously along with the Father, who was talking about something vague and disinteresting. Anakin couldn’t help but be impressed at his talents in multitasking. That was certainly a trait he’d got from Padmé. He himself was terrible at being coy and discrete with his emotions.

_“Would you say Obi Wan trusts you?”_ Luke asked out of nowhere, after a few seconds.

Anakin hesitated, glancing over to the frigid figure of his master in front of them, the instinctive answer of ‘yes’ dying on his tongue. That was the million credit question.

Sure, they were ‘the team’: Kenobi and Skywalker. They were like two halves of the same warrior, and Obi Wan was like a brother to him. If Luke had asked that question at any point before the last ten minutes, his answer would have been stead-fast and easy. There was next to nothing that could drive them apart.

But now… Anakin’s certainty was foggy and clouded over. Obi Wan may have been a brother to him, but he was also a member of the council, and loyal to the Jedi as a fault. He upheld the code with the most diligent prejudice, and had spent his entire life teaching Anakin to do the same. Now here was the bombshell: he’d just discovered that Anakin had turned the code up on its head and fathered a son. Could he be sure that Obi Wan would even look at him the same way ever again?

At that thought, Anakin’s blood ran cold. Luke had been introduced or mentioned numerous times as the ‘Son of Vader’, and Obi Wan himself had expressed concern at trusting the son of a Sith Lord. Thankfully, it didn’t seem as though Obi Wan’s mind had bridged the gap yet and made the connection between the son of Anakin also being the son of Vader, but Obi Wan was smart. It would come to him eventually, and now Anakin had no choice but to face the horrible truth that would come to be.

No. It would never come to be.

He scowled and shook his head, trying to dislodge the thoughts from his mind.

_“Yes,”_ he replied resolutely to Luke, shaking the cloud of doubt and fear away. Obi Wan was still Obi Wan, even with everything that was going on, and Anakin trusted him implicitly.

_It’s over Anakin! I have the high ground!_

_You underestimate my power._

_Don’t try it._

Luke cleared his throat, and, resting his elbow on his folded arm, rubbed at his lower lip as he thought. The memory of those distressing visions were immediately chased from Anakin’s mind by an image of Padmé trying to draft a speech for a new bill in the senate, and he felt an endearing smile creep onto his face.

“ _He’ll be on your side if you randomly attack someone, right?”_ Luke continued.

_“I don’t think I like where this is going,”_

_“Don’t worry,”_ Luke said. _“It’ll be fine. You and Obi Wan will attack the Father as a distraction, while I sneak behind him and stab him from behind. See if you can get Ahsoka to wake up and join us, as backup.”_

_“Now I see why Rex hates ‘Skywalker plans’,”_ Anakin groaned, but he followed his son’s advice and sent Ahsoka a nudge over their bond. After so much time speaking telepathically through the force, the subtle wave of emotion felt clumsy and inefficient. It was almost like he’d been a seasoned Jedi master, diverting blaster bolts and projectiles with a casual wave of a hand, but now he was back to being a youngling, sending small rocks flying through the air with hapless abandon.

His mental force pebble still worked though. He felt Ahsoka’s bleary confusion as she was roused, and turned his mind back to what was about to happen. He hadn’t technically transmitted the urgency of the situation across so, knowing her, she would be quite some time, but even late backup was better than no back up.

Luke met his eye. His hand rested on his belt and, almost in slow motion, he nodded.

Anakin drew his saber and struck before anyone else would’ve had time to blink. Unfortunately though, even that was too slow for a god of the force. With the flick of a hand, a shining black spear had appeared in front of his torso, blocking Anakin’s attack.

“Anakin!” Obi Wan cried, igniting his saber. “What are you doing?!”

“Don’t you see, master?” Anakin grunted as another blow was parried. “This isn’t the Father!”

The Father’s eyes were glowing a burning red as he redirected Anakin’s relentless attacks. Obi Wan’s eyes narrowed and he nodded, launching himself into the fight too.

Despite the literal life or death situation they’d found themselves in, Anakin found himself grinning.The two of them traded blows and blocks with ease, moving with the same practiced synchrony as they always had. It was almost like he was fighting with an extension of his very self: he’d be forced to leave an opening, and Obi Wan would immediately cover it; he’d leap out the way of a strike, Obi Wan would take advantage of the father’s slight imbalance; he’d take the left flank, OBi Wan would immediately attack the right, and so on. Nothing would ever be able to get between them. Not the Jedi council or their laws, not the Father, not the disturbing visions of the future, together, they were invincible.

_If you strike me down, I shall become more powerful than you can possibly imagine._

The Father seemed to realise this too. His retaliation was becoming less and less brutal, his ground was slipping further and further back as they fought. His eyes narrowed as he considered his options, but Anakin was too intoxicated on his success to notice the father’s eyes flicking towards Luke for a split second.

All Anakin noticed, in the midst of the flurry of blows, was his son, slightly crouched down behind the Father, lightsaber ready to strike.

“Do it,” he said, and Luke nodded.

He didn’t manage to do it. The Father twisted around and snatched Luke off his feet before he could even ignite his blade, pulling the boy round to face them. Luke’s lightsaber clattered to the floor and spun off in unsteady circles. The father brought the hissing tip of his back weapon to hover at Luke’s throat, and Anakin froze.

Obi Wan had stopped too, and he put a hand on Anakin’s shoulder. Anakin could feel himself shaking, but his eyes never left Luke’s.

“If you wish to kill me,” the Father said, an evil grin splitting his face in two. “You must also kill your son. Can you make that sacrifice, Chosen one?”

Luke was trembling. The tip of the Father’s weapon had nicked the skin at his throat and blood was starting to stream down, only fuelling the rage building inside Anakin.

“I don’t have to,” he growled, spinning his saber.

“Anakin,” Obi Wan warned.

“I’ll kill you and save him, watch me,”

The Father sighed. His eyes flicked up to the sky, and such a maliciously serene expression came over his face, that there was no longer any doubt in Anakin’s mind that this wasn’t the Father, just a twisted version of the Son.

“You’re right,” he said. He looked down again, and his eyes met Anakin’s. “I’ve made this far too easy for you,”

With that, the Father jerked once or twice, and collapsed down onto the floor. A strange black mist descended over Luke, who gasped as it touched him. He fell to his knees and screamed, shaking violently. Anakin dropped his lightsaber and rushed to his son’s side.

“Is he having a seizure?” he asked frantically, holding Luke’s shuddering body in his arms. “Obi Wan, help me, what do I do?”

Almost as quickly as they had started, Luke’s violent convulsions stopped. He lay in Anakin’s arms, still and limp, and Anakin didn’t want to think about how pale he was all of a sudden.

“Luke?” he whispered, shaking his shoulders.

Luke’s head flopped around like a broken doll’s.

“Luke?!” Anakin repeated, louder this time. He could hear the panic bleeding out into his voice. “Luke, are you okay?”

“Of course I am...” Luke said suddenly. His head straightened, his body stiffened, his mouth split into a wicked grin and his eyes opened to reveal bottomless pits of dark burning coal. “...Father,”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> uh ohh...
> 
> well it’s been some time since i last updated, I know. school’s back around the corner, so i’ve got so much shit to sort out. who would’ve thought ignoring all your online work since march would have consequences?!
> 
> don’t worry, obi wan isn’t actually the cold hearted monster that he’s made out to be when it comes to luke. Anakin just isn’t really the epitome of a reliable narrator.
> 
> anyway, so that was the latest chapter! we’re pretty close to the end, there should be maybe three more chapters after this (four if i can push it) and i’m honestly so overwhelmed with the feedback this fic has got. i never really expected it to be honest! thank you guys so much, i really appreciate every single kudos and comment, even if the only way I know how to express it through text is to spam close brackets. :))

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you enjoyed!


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